More work, less play: Rinehart sets out road to riches

Updated

Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart has urged Australians to work harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising if they want to become wealthy.

In her regular column in a mining industry magazine, the controversial magnate says billionaires and millionaires are doing more than anyone to help the poor by investing their money and creating jobs.

Mrs Rinehart, who has seen her fortunes rise after parlaying a multi-million dollar inheritance into a mining empire now worth more than $20 billion, blames anti-business and socialist policies for hurting the poor.

Writing in Australian Resources and Investment magazine, she blames "taxes, green tape and socialist policies" for killing off investment in Australian projects.

We asked if you agreed with Gina Rinehart: read your comments below.

"Those who hurt most when investments are killed off ... are those who usually vote for the anti-business socialist parties," she wrote in the piece, titled 'Let's get back to our roots'.

"And for them, the price is very high. It's a job lost, when they have few savings, a mortgage to meet and children to clothe and feed."

Mrs Rinehart also suggests lowering the minimum wage, writing: "Why not ask whether lowering the minimum wages and lowering taxes would make employers hire more people?"

And she says if you are jealous of those with more money, do not just sit there and complain - do something to make more money yourself.

"Let's get through the class warfare smokescreen," Mrs Rinehart wrote.

"We need to regain our roots and encourage people to invest and build. 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 - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socialising, and more time working.

"Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others.

"Australia needs such people."

But that is not the Australian way, according to Aussie Home Loans founder and chairman John Symond.

"It sounds pretty tough to me," he said.

"You know, there's got to be a balance, but let's face it - one of the great things about Australia is having a bit of fun and having a drink, a barbecue, a few laughs.

"Nothing works at the extreme, but certainly I wouldn't want to see that cut out."

'Insult to workers'

Mrs Rinehart's comments drew an angry response from Treasurer Wayne Swan, who has had many well-publicised run-ins with Ms Rinehart and other mining magnates.

"These sorts of comments are an insult to the millions of Australian workers who go to work and slog it out to feed the kids and pay the bills," Mr Swan said.

"The big question is whether Tony Abbott will endorse Gina Rinehart’s social policies as he's endorsed her tax, industrial relations and environmental policies.

"Will he do her bidding and slash the minimum wage as Gina wants him to?"

WA Council of Social Services chief executive Irina Cattalini says Mrs Rinehart needs to understand that not everyone is born into privilege.

"It's incumbent on all of us to have the understanding and the empathy to think about those who need that extra support and assistance to be able to live what we all consider to be a reasonable quality of life," she said.

Topics: mining-industry, industry, business-economics-and-finance, human-interest, wa, australia

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