Source : the age
One Nation’s biggest donor Gina Rinehart has purchased an $8 million office property in inner-city Brisbane which will become the new headquarters for Pauline Hanson’s populist party.
The mining billionaire bought the Spring Hill property, described in promotional material as a “striking three-storey freehold”, last week through Hanrine Investments, a subsidiary of Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
A spokesman for Rinehart confirmed the purchase of the property, with One Nation planning to relocate its headquarters from its Brisbane Airport base once the suitable fit-out was done.
The spokesman insisted the party would not be given free or discounted rent but did not respond to questions from this masthead about who would cover the cost of the fit-out.
“Hancock Prospecting holds a range of commercial property, and this building is one of them,” Rinehart’s spokesman said.
“Hancock is not providing free or discounted space to any outside tenant, political or otherwise.”
One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce defended the decision to rent the property from Rinehart, repeating a common party line it preferred financial support from individual donors over spending taxpayers’ money.
”It’s her lease. We’re leasing it off her at a commercial rate,” Joyce told News24 on Monday morning.
“And, you know, if we’ve got an individual who’s got money, they should be allowed to spend it as they see fit … She’s buying a building, Gina is buying a building and we’re leasing it off her.
“What would you prefer, we can put on the taxpayers’ ticket, but we don’t. We always make sure we pay for things ourselves as best we can in One Nation.
“You’ll find us doing a lot more off our own bat and reaching into our own wallet of the party, rather than putting it on the taxpayers’ ticket.”
Rinehart has been an active and generous donor to One Nation as the populist force rises in the polls.
This masthead revealed in August the billionaire’s sprawling mansion in Hawthorne on the Brisbane River had become a regular location for donation events, where dinners are held for $10,000 each.
Rinehart has also conducted One Nation fundraising events on board her private jet – for $15,000 a spot – and the luxury cruise ship The World.
In April, Rinehart gifted the party a “sexy” new Cirrus SR22 plane worth an estimated $1.5 million, alongside another $2 million in donations from close associates of Rinehart, announced on the same day with novelty cheques in an aircraft hangar.
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James Hall is the News Director at the Brisbane Times. He is the former Queensland correspondent at The Australian Financial Review and has reported for a range of mastheads across the country, specialising on political and finance reporting.Connect via X or email.
