Billionaire Clive Palmer has invited Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart to spend three weeks on the "roasters'' in his nickel refinery before she tells workers to "stop whingeing, socialise less, and work harder for lower wages''.

Mrs Rinehart, who has built a $20 billion mining empire on the back of her inheritance, has issued a stern rebuke to those jealous of the wealthy, The Courier-Mail reports.

She attacked Australia's "class warfare'', called for a lower minimum wage, and suggested the nation start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising.

Mrs Rinehart also suggested the government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 per week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.

Fellow mining magnate Clive Palmer told The Courier-Mail she was "entitled to her views'' but feared she may have reignited bitter debate of the "billionaires vs the rest of the world''.

"I like the pub, I like going to the footy, I like socialising with friends,'' said Mr Palmer, who has an estimated $6.08 billion fortune.

"And I'd hope we would all get more money at the end of the day for our hard work, not less.

"I don't think the base wage is enough. I think we need to do more to increase the base wage.''

He invited Ms Rinehart to spend three weeks on the roasters in his Yabula Nickel Refinery at Townsville to experience life at the blast furnace of reality.

Maverick North Queensland MP Bob Katter said her comments were a veiled attack on the future of Australian workers.

"Gina told us to get out of the pubs, stop smoking, don't go to the football, work on the weekends, and then you can get rich like her,'' the Kennedy MP.

"She left out the bit about Daddy being a cattle station owner and the biggest mining magnate in Australia, that helps as well. So thank you for your advice, Gina.

"This demonstrates the most burning question in Australia today: are we going to give 200,000 mining jobs to foreign workers as Gina Rinehart wants?

Mr Katter said her comments were clearly about cutting back pay on minimum average wage.

In her regular column in Australian Resources and Investment magazine, Mrs Rinehart warns that Australia risks heading down the same path as European economies ruined by "socialist" policies, high taxes and excessive regulation.

She suggests the government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 per week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.

"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," writes Mrs Rinehart, who has built a $20 billion-plus mining empire since inheriting lucrative tenements from her father, Lang Hancock, in 1992.

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working."

Treasurer Wayne Swan said Ms Rinehart's comments were an insult to the millions of Australian workers who slog it out to feed the kids and pay the bills.

''Tony Abbott is Gina's knight in shining armour when it comes to fighting for tax cuts for her and Clive Palmer," he said in a statement.

"The question for Tony Abbott today is, does he agree with Gina Rinehart that Aussies are lazy workers who drink and socialise too much?"

Mr Abbott has yet to respond publicly to Ms Rinehart's remarks.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters at a Perth conference he did not agree.

"I think this view of hers is just plain wrong, and life's more complex than that," he said.

Mr Rudd said his wife, Therese Rein, employed about 3000 people around the world based on her own efforts as a businesswoman.

"(She) has built her own business empire on the basis of her own grit, determination and starting with absolutely nothing," he said.

"Everyone in this country deserves a decent start in life and everyone in this country deserves decent, basic social protections, and one of those social protections is the minimum wage."

Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union national president Tony Maher said Ms Rinehart's other claim that millionaires and billionaires were doing the most for social good come as she is readying to import foreign labor.

"What planet is she living on?" Mr Maher said.

Mr Katter said Ms Rinehart has been given the go-ahead by state and federal governments to bring in thousands of foreign workers.

Ms Rinehart also writes that her "great friend Michael Kailis" started his crayfish empire using prisoners from a local jail as labour.

But she says that would probably be against regulations today.

Originally published as Palmer offers Rinehart a reality check