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New laws likely to ‘bring agriculture to a halt’ in State

A respected WA pastoralist says her family will have to scrap years of planned works under the new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, claiming the legislation will “bring agriculture to a halt”. The 2022 WA Rural Woman of the Year finalist said she was also concerned the legislation, while giving Aboriginal people more say in managing their cultural heritage, disregarded the multi-generational knowledge and connection to country many pastoralists have inherited. “We’ve had the place for five generations, so we are well aware of any cultural heritage on the property,” Ms Dowden told Countryman. “We would never disturb something of significance; we hold it as precious to our hearts as any Indigenous person would, and we never underestimate the value of that.

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Farmers fear costly red tape could hamper tasks

Farmers fear their ability to do basic tasks like fencing or deep ripping will become tangled in costly red tape when important new legislation designed to protect WA’s Aboriginal cultural heritage takes effect next month. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 was passed through State Parliament in late December in the wake of Rio Tinto’s infamous blasting of Juukan Gorge more than two years earlier.

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Miners, farmers hit out at WA’s ‘shambolic’ new heritage laws

New Indigenous heritage laws set to come into force in Western Australia are “shambolic” and will hold up new mines and food production in the state, according to the explorers and farmers. But the government says it won’t reconsider or delay the proposal, which is due to take effect on July 1, legislated after the widely condemned destruction of the Juukan Gorge heritage site by Rio Tinto in 2020.

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Farmers tired of contempt

The next government official or politician who turns up in regional WA wanting to “inform” or “consult” with the locals better be careful. The “stakeholders” are getting restless. Our regional businesses are vital to the interests of WA, providing billions of dollars of export income and sustaining thousands of jobs from Kununurra to Esperance. How about governments back off for a while, or even better, reduce red tape, cut taxes and let sustainable, profitable industries get on with business with less government intrusion.

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Gina Rinehart steps up again for rural Australia

AUSTRALIAN mining and agriculture icon Gina Rinehart has again stepped up for rural Australia, this time becoming the patron of rural charity Rural Aid. Mrs Rinehart said Rural Aid was an organisation that ‘stands with our mates in the bush’ during their hard times. “And it does get tough in the bush, with floods, fires and severe drought, in addition to the usual dangers of snakes, spiders and in some northern areas, crocodiles too,” she said. “As patron of Rural Aid, I encourage all Australians to throw their support behind its ongoing efforts in ensuring that our food producers – our farmers- are able to get back on their feet quickly when drought, flood or bushfire hits them.”

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Dr Charlie Teo goes rogue at his exclusive ‘Rebel Ball’: Watch the under-fire brain surgeon’s foul-mouthed spray against investigators during event attended by celebrities and sports stars

At Saturday night’s ball in Sydney’s Crown Casino in Barangaroo, the focus was on raising funds for his charity to research brain cancer. NRL legend Benny Elias snapped up the star lot at the auction, paying $160,000 for two days with mining magnate Gina Rinehart at the Ayana Estate in Bali. It was was billed ‘An exclusive experience with Gina Rinehart’ and will see Elias and a guest whisked away on a private chartered flight to her luxury Bali hideaway in November for a gala dinner with industry giants. The following day, another private flight will then whisk them to Port Hedland in Western Australia for another gala dinner under the stars at the Roy Hill rail site at her mining facility, before another private flight back to Perth.

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Hancock Group | Building an Exceptional Future

Women play an essential role at all levels of the Hancock Group. Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart, is an industry leader, providing a role model and inspiration for other women. We are proud to be an organisation committed to developing opportunities for women across our operations.

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IR, energy bungling puts brakes on growth

The issues that most concern me in thinking about Australia’s need for reform are not the external developments that seem to get most attention, like the prospect of global recession or resurgent protectionism, or even the “climate emergency”, as it is now called. The biggest challenges are ones we’ve created for ourselves. I don’t just mean the inflationary fallout from Covid, which the Treasurer has recently called the “defining challenge of our time”, but policies that have damaged our economy’s ability to cope with change, to be competitive and support economic growth. These and other findings went over pretty well with both sides of politics at the time, as I recall. So the policy outlook seemed hopeful. How on Earth then did we end up with the costly hotchpotch of measures we’ve got today? How did we get to a situation in which electricity will not only become a luxury but an unreliable one?

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Twenty Australian women influencing the agricultural industry | Gina Rinehart

Gina Rinehart may have made her fortune in mining, but she has also put her stamp on Australian agriculture. That was clear when she stepped forward to buy the famous S Kidman and Co holdings in 2016, making her Australia’s biggest landowner, controlling more than 10 million hectares. Ms Rinehart has since been one of the most active purchasers of Australia farmland, but in the past few years has diluted her property holdings. However, she still owns a commanding six million hectares, running about 240,000 cattle, with an eye on new purchases along the east coast. Ms Rinehart, who is not reluctant in making her views known, is a strong advocate for Australian agriculture.

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