posted September 05, 2012 02:26 PM            

while i understand the horror of not being able to do exactly as you please even when you are worth billions, this sort of speech is more likely to get her business KICKED OUT of oz than encourage the buckling of the workers there...

what the "job creators" don't seem to realize is there is always someone else coming up behind them who can do it for less too. less profit and less arrogance, that is.

i got nothing against success or wealth, but when it lifts you into the stratosphere where workers are just numbers on a page, and regulations are just pesky profit barriers, some see the needs of those who labour below and others forget that without those labourers there would be NO profit.

how much is rich enough?

SYDNEY, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Asia's richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, warned on Wednesday that Australia was becoming too expensive for mining firms which she said could hire workers for under $2 a day in Africa.

Rinehart's comments, promptly denounced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, coincide with growing concern about the strength of Australia's mining boom in the face of weaker demand from main customer China and tumbling prices of iron ore, its single biggest export earner.

In the past week, Australia's Fortescue Metals Group Ltd said it would slash capital spending by 25 percent and wind back expansion plans, while BHP Billiton Ltd has shelved a $20 billion copper and gold mine expansion in Australia and put all other approvals worldwide on hold.

"The evidence is inarguable that Australia is becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export-oriented business," Rinehart told the Sydney Mining Club in a rare public appearance. A video of her address was posted on the club's website.

"Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day," she said in the video. "Such statistics make me worry for this country's future.

"We are becoming a high-cost and high-risk nation for investment."

Rinehart, whom Forbes estimated to be worth $18 billion in February, opposes a recently introduced mining tax as well as taxes on carbon emissions, which has created tensions with Gillard's government.

Rinehart has also called for miners to be allowed to bring in foreign workers, and her company Hancock Prospecting was granted government approval in May to hire just over 1,700 foreign construction workers for her Roy Hill project in Western Australia.

Gillard criticised Rinehart's remarks, saying the resources sector was doing well and had an investment pipeline of $500 billion, of which nearly half was at an advanced stage.

"It's not the Australian way to toss people $2, to toss them a gold coin, and then ask them to work for a day," Gillard told reporters. "We support proper Australian wages and decent working conditions."

Rinehart's remarks are the latest to target the Australian economy. In a column published last week in a mining magazine, Rinehart said Australians needed to complain less and to work more if they wanted to be rich.

"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you're jealous of those with more money don't just sit there and complain, do something to make more money yourself," she wrote in Australian Resources and Investment magazine. "Spend less time drinking, smoking and socialising and more time working."

posted September 05, 2012 03:33 PM            

Of course the Socialist government geeks didn't like Rinehart calling them out. Socialist government geeks never do. Witness O'Bomber!

posted September 05, 2012 03:45 PM            

BTW, Hard working African Miners are paid $500 a month but treated like animals. When they protest, they are shot dead mercilessly.

Nothing wrong if the Australian Government wants their miners to be treated like human beings.

posted September 05, 2012 04:29 PM            

the woman inherited her money and business. in other words, she did nothing to get them. and she has obviously been eating her way through however many years she has been on earth.

but recently her kids took her to court because instead of following the guidelines of the TRUST left for the family, she pushed the date of their "majority" forward 50 YEARS...long after her death if she continues the size she is now...

posted September 06, 2012 01:29 AM            

There's always a group of men who feel threatened, even emasculated by strong successful women. Hence, there must be something wrong with her. She's useless...a biatch.

Well, she's competing quite successfully in a male dominated industry and doing exactly the same things her competitors do.

Funny thing though, I don't hear any pi$sing and moaning about da guys.

posted September 06, 2012 06:14 AM            

BTW it can be argued that Hillary Clinton's success makes GOP men sqeamish and turns them into little boys without testosterone.

Strong successful women are those like Helen Keller, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, JK Rowling and modern day tech savvy leaders like Carey Fiona. Very admirable role models for all humanity as they outperformed and slogged hard for success. Even Sara Palin is a bigger success than useless Gina. Sara has worked and performed for the Alaskan State, and I do not think her kids would be filing lawsuits against her.