She's rich, she's powerful and no one stands in her way. Not even her family.

Gina Rinehart has done everything in her power to build a fortune and at the same time keep her family's business dealings secret.

Now Four Corners investigates her rise to power, looking at the business deals that have made her billions, her disputes with close family and her plans to have her voice heard across Australia.

"Gina Rinehart - The Power of One", reported by Marian Wilkinson goes, to air Monday 25th June at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 26th June at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, on ABC iview or at 4 Corners.

Transcript

"GINA RINEHART - THE POWER OF ONE" - Monday 25 June 2012

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Welcome to Four Corners. Gina Rinehart is already the world's richest woman, on her way to becoming the world's richest person. She's also well down the road to becoming one of this country's most powerful individuals. Having parlayed her father Lang Hancock's inheritance into massive mining wealth headquartered in the Pilbara, she has made clear she will use her wealth and power single-mindedly to promote her interests. She's bought a big chunk of the Ten television network, and now in recent weeks an even bigger chunk of the Fairfax Media Group, which include the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age newspapers. As her pile of Fairfax shares has grown, so has her demand for seats on the board, which include the right to hire and fire editors. The board has resisted, announcing a dramatic restructure including massive job cuts, hoping in the process to shore up institutional shareholder support against it.

The Rinehart story is fascinating. She's preferred privacy over the decades, but every time she's stepped into the public eye, she's attracted controversy - first in her ten year battle with her stepmother Rose Porteous over her father's estate, and more recently her legal dispute with three of her four children over their share of the Hancock fortune. This is more than family bickering - at its heart, it's about control of the Hancock empire.

Tonight, Marian Wilkinson presents a profile of Gina Rinehart. I should point out, Mrs Rinehart declined an on-camera for the program, but her son John has spoken to us.

[Excerpt from news story, 1976]

REPORTER: Gina, what does the future hold for you? Does the idea of being a millionairess, tycoon lady in the business world, does that bore you, worry you, upset you?

GINA RINEHART: Well, these are all the names the press sort of give me but I don't really think of it along those lines. I know that I've got an awful lot of work to do so that I can carry on the work my father has been doing.

REPORTER: Is it all going to come to you?

GINA RINEHART: Well I mean it's not just me, we have staff of course to help but it's just that I am the only child, so a lot of it does come my way. [End of excerpt]

MARIAN WILKINSON, REPORTER: Thirty-six years later, a lot more has come Gina Rinehart's way. She's the richest Australian ever. But, surprisingly, Gina Rinehart, like her father, has never actually built and operated a mine in her own right, except for a test pit.

MICHAEL YABLSEY, FORMER ADVISER TO GINA RINEHART: She may become the richest person on earth. But I think that she would consider that she had failed and had failed on behalf of her father if she does not actually operate a mine herself. I think it is the Holy Grail.

ADELE FERGUSON, GINA RINEHART BIOGRAPHER: The thing with Hancock Prospecting and with her father, his dream was always to actually own and operate a mine. He never did. And Gina, even though she's a... you know makes all this money she actually doesn't run a mine.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina Rinehart burst onto the national stage as a mining magnate during the strident campaign to axe Labor's mining tax before the last election. For decades, Gina Rinehart was better known for her bitter feuding than her mining. It's only now, at 58, she is finally set to build her own mine at Roy Hill in the Pilbara. But on the brink of her greatest triumph, she is once again embroiled in conflicts. The most serious is with her own children, who she blames for delaying her dream project.

JOHN HANCOCK, SON: It might not be a Rolls Royce but it gets me where I want to go.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Are you going to get the windscreen fixed?

JOHN HANCOCK: My lawyers always take precedence for what cash I have after that, so windscreen and personal safety come a distant second unfortunately.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina Rinehart's only son John, once her loyal ally, is now in a brutal court battle with his mother. Together with two of his sisters, he has lodged a claim that accuses her of serious misconduct over running the trust which holds the children's interest in the Hancock fortune. A claim his mother strongly denies.

JOHN HANCOCK: It's like flying in a thunderstorm in the Pilbara.

MARIAN WILKINSON: What is the purpose of the action you and your sisters are currently taking?

JOHN HANCOCK: Well, we're seeking to remove my mother as trustee and get access to the records of the trust.

MARIAN WILKINSON: In his first television interview since the case hit the headlines, John Hancock is flagging that this fraught battle could open up old wounds in house of Hancock.

(to John Hancock) If your mother is removed as trustee, who will be the new trustee?

JOHN HANCOCK: Well, whoever's the new trustee will have a duty and responsibility to go back and examine the history of the administration of the trust.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Unravelling the bitter feuds that still haunt the Hancock family begins here, Hope Downs, in West Australia's Pilbara. Today these rich iron ore mines are operated by the global miner, Rio Tinto. But Rio only owns half of Hope Downs. The other half is owned by Hancock Prospecting. It's the jewel in Gina Rinehart's crown, making her company an estimated 1.5 billion dollars in profits last year.

JULIAN GRILL, FORMER WA MINISTER: They were important tenements, there's no doubt; it's now the basis of the Hancock fortune if I can call it that. I mean it's not the only element of that fortune but it's a very important element of that that fortune.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Named after Hope Hancock, Gina's mother, Hope Downs has embroiled three generations of the family in conflict. But back in 1976, when son John was just born and Gina was still married to her first husband, Greg Milton, the House of Hancock was united in their quest to mine the Pilbara.

GINA RINEHART (1976): All I can do is devote all my time to the business side and to my family and everything else I sort of forget about.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: There was never any doubt that she was the heir apparent. The closeness of the relationship between Gina and her father was clearly demonstrated. But what was always in play, and what I think has been evident as the decades have rolled on, is the character trait that, "if you're not with me you're ag'in me", which means that it's a very, it's a very closed world. And very few people are part of it, and there are many people who have been part of it who cease to be part of it because she perceived that they were not 100 percent with her.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Michael Yabsley and a group of young Turks in the Liberal Party first met Gina Rinehart back in the 1970s.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: There were half a dozen of us who were heavily involved in student politics. Lang Hancock had made no secret of the fact that he was pretty disenchanted with the generation of politicians at the time and Lang and Gina were keen to develop some relationships. So within that group there were people like Peter Costello, Michael Kroger, Eric Abetz and a number of others, and I was part of that group.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina's adoration for her father was on display for his 70th birthday. At 25 she owned a third of his company. On this birthday night, she and her father's old ally, Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, lit the candles for Lang's cake. No-one could imagine that four years later, Gina Rinehart's relationship with her father would break down almost irretrievably.

ROSE PORTEOUS, STEPMOTHER OF GINA RINEHART: I find him to be a real man. He's not made of clay. I find him very sexy.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Rose Porteous entered Lang Hancock's life as a housemaid just weeks after Gina's mother died of breast cancer in 1983. In no time, Rose and the 74-year-old Lang were lovers.

LANG HANCOCK, FATHER OF GINA RINEHART: She makes me feel younger, that's part of it. It's a delightful experience for me.

ROSE PORTEOUS: No, No, Ken, I swear if you give it to me I'll never talk to you again for the rest of my Hancock life.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Two years later, Lang had not only married Rose but thrown Gina off the family company board and installed Rose as a new director.

LANG HANCOCK: She's highly intelligent and she's picking it up very, very fast indeed. I am very glad that she has adopted that attitude and not just be a social butterfly but get her teeth into the business.

MARIAN WILKINSON: What happened to the relationship between Gina Rinehart and her father during those years of Lang's marriage to Rose?

MICHAEL YABSLEY: It imploded. Here is a woman who has been weaned on the message of being circumspect. In other words: be very wary of people who are trying to take you down in one way or another. Enter Rose Porteous and really all of those messages that she had, that she had heard throughout her childhood and throughout her younger years for Gina became a reality. She had the predatory stepmother to contend with.

GINA RINEHART (1997): My husband, Frank Rinehart was a very private person...

MARIAN WILKINSON: But Gina had also re-married. Her second husband, American lawyer Frank Rinehart, was thirty-seven years her senior. She would later tell Australian Story he was a "fabulous husband".

GINA RINEHART (1997): He was the finest person I've ever known. He was actually a very, very modest person. I don't know until after he passed away that he had in fact... a friend of his mentioned it to me - that he'd in fact become top of Harvard College and top of Harvard Law School.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Frank Rinehart had also been disbarred in America. He received a 12 month suspended jail sentence for tax fraud before he met Gina.

ADELE FERGUSON: Lang actually didn't like Frank before he'd even met Rose. He thought that he was this older man who was scheming to get the business, so Gina had got married in Las Vegas well before Rose came on the scene and Lang was not happy about that.

LANG HANCOCK (1986): She has her own life to lead and she married an American - she can't run the place from America, so I have had to make other plans.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Lang's relationship with Rose enraged Gina and Frank. They first tried to get Rose's visa cancelled. In furious letter, Gina called her a "Filipina whore". Lang retaliated, writing to his daughter she'd become a "slothful, vindictive and devious baby elephant..."

JOH BJELKE-PETERSEN, FORMER QLD PREMIER: Lovely to have Rose here tonight and Lang, you look exceedingly well and we're glad to see that Rose looks after you so well.

MARIAN WILKINSON: At 78, Lang celebrated his birthday with Rose and a new mining venture. With the help of the state Labor government, he had signed a deal with BHP to at last build his own mine.

REPORTER: It's McCamey's Monster. It's the biggest ore deposit yet discovered.

MARIAN WILKINSON: By now Lang was spending like there was no tomorrow on his two great passions: Rose, and his proposed mine. Gina only saw that her inheritance was being squandered.

ADELE FERGUSON: She was a shareholder in the company Hancock Prospecting and he'd kicked her off the board and kicked her out of the company, and she felt that he was spending too much money on her stepmother, and she felt that was rightfully her money and she thought the company was going to rack and ruin - so she felt she needed to threaten him.

MARIAN WILKINSON: In 1988 Gina hit back, threatening legal action to remove Lang as head of the company he founded. The fight ended with Lang and Gina signing an agreement. Put simply, Lang stayed as head of Hancock Prospecting until his death. But Gina and her now four children would inherit it. The children's share would be held in trust.

A separate Hancock Foundation would hold Lang's share of Hancock Prospecting. On Lang's death, the Foundation would go to Gina's children, to be held in trust until the youngest turned 25. But despite the agreement, the rift between Gina Rinehart and her father was far from healed.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: I don't think it was ever to the point that it was irreconcilable and I think events ultimately would show that. But the estrangement was certainly there, and it was deep and it was bitter.

ROSE PORTEOUS: It's not a very grand house, really. It's a very homey house. Hi, it's nice to see you. Come on in.

MARIAN WILKINSON: After Rose and Lang moved into their lavish mansion, Prix d'Amour, their rift with Gina deepened. At 82, his health failing, Lang Hancock wrote a new will. Hancock Prospecting would still go to Gina and her children. But the Hancock Foundation changed. While it still went in trust to Gina's children, Rose would get half the profits from its mining ventures, which by then included McCamey's Monster and Hope Downs.

NICK STYANT-BROWNE, FORMER LAWYER FOR ROSE PORTEOUS: Rose came along and I think from Gina's perspective stole his affection.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Now working in Seattle, Nick Styant-Browne spent years as Rose's lawyer embroiled in the legal feud over the Hancock millions.

NICK STYANT-BROWNE: So what happened was that Lang had a will and essentially it gave half of his estate to Rose and half of it to Gina. There were other complications, but essentially that's what it did.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina was widowed by the time she heard about her father's new will. To her it was a clear breach of their earlier deal. Six months before Lang died, she decided it was time to set things right.

GINA RINEHART (1997): You know, Dad went through a very, very difficult time and you know the sad part is, I was only there, properly there in the last few months, and I saw that Dad had very few people around him that he could trust.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina's then legal advisor began work on a deed that would dramatically change the effect of Lang's will.

NICK STYANT-BROWN: His name was Alan Camp. After he'd had an opportunity to have a look at the will and how it worked, he then drafted the deed - the purpose of which on Rose's case was to bypass the will, bankrupt the estate and vest the assets under the control of Gina.

MARIAN WILKINSON: At a hospital in Perth, shortly before he died, Lang Hancock made two fateful decisions. Firstly he agreed with Gina to sell his McCamey's Monster rights. But the huge profit and future royalties would now go back to Hancock Prospecting where Gina was about to take over, not to his estate.

Secondly and critically, the deed Hancock signed also gave immediate control of the Hancock Foundation and its mining tenements to Gina's children with her as a trustee. This meant Rose's 50 per cent share of his estate would be zero, because there was nothing left.

NICK STYANT-BROWN: That was the effect of the Deed on Rose's case to disinherit her, to bankrupt the estate, and it all happened a week before his death.

MARIAN WILKINSON: When the dying Lang Hancock returned to Prix d'Amour for his final days, his angry wife berated him. Lang, at Gina's suggestion, sought a restraining order barring Rose from his bedside. The move brought ignited a media storm outside the Hancock mansion. The next morning, Lang Hancock died. Gina, not Rose, was at his bedside. She would now fight for her father's legacy. Rose was already exposed in the media as a pethidine addict. Now the major crime squad arrived at her door to investigate rumours Lang's death might be suspicious.

POLICE OFFICER: Inquiries are continuing because there has been no death certificate issued.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Lang Hancock's funeral began a ten year legal battle between Gina Rinehart and Rose over the Hancock millions. Gina's argument was simple: there was no money for Rose. Her father's estate was bankrupt, and Gina herself was left to rebuild a debt-ridden Hancock Prospecting.

GINA RINEHART (1997): There was nothing in the estate for a fight later on because he'd disposed of, or given away most of whatever, most of the things in his lifetime, so there's nothing left in the estate to fight about.

MARIAN WILKINSON: But all over Perth, Gina also stepped up pressure on Rose by lobbying for an inquest into her father's death which she insisted was suspicious. When the coroner refused, she lobbied the Attorney General to overturn him.

PETER FOSS, FORMER WA ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I was approached by various other Ministers and other people of of influence, ah who had been obviously approached by her to ask me why it was I hadn't ah made the order that was, that she sought. I don't think Gina has a reputation for giving up lightly.

MARIAN WILKINSON: With her future at stake, Gina Rinehart turned to her old political friends.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: Michael Kroger and I were appointed about the same time and remained on board with Hancock Prospecting for about the same period of time.

MICHAEL KORGER, FORMER ADVISER TO GINA RINEHART (1997): It was only in July of this year that we actually got access to the coroners file and as soon as we did we considered that there were major deficiencies in the work that was done at the time and that an inquest should be held.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: I think Gina felt very threatened and I think she had good reason to feel threatened. She was defending the empire and she had good reason to defend the empire.

MARIAN WILKINSON: If Gina found serious evidence that Rose killed Lang it would end her stepmother's legal claims against his estate. It took seven years, but Gina finally convinced the Coroner to agree to an inquest after "new evidence" emerged.

NICK STYANT-BROWNE: So it was seriously alleged against Rose that she conspired in the Philippines to engage a contract killer or contract killers, with the purpose of taking Lang out, or alternatively, to assist her in some other way to kill him, including poisoning him.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The inquest was high stakes for both women. Rose was supported by her husband, Willie Porteous, who she'd married within months of Lang's death. Gina Rinehart was supported by her son John. But her savvy advisors Yabsley and Kroger were long gone. And the new evidence collapsed spectacularly. A private detective, Colin Pace, previously in the pay of Gina's company, handed over his files to Rose's lawyers. They showed Hancock Prospecting had secretly paid large sums of money to the witnesses testifying against Rose at the inquest.

NICK STYANT-BROWNE: Hundreds of thousands of dollars. So there was one witness, a Filipina, whose name was Louise Black, and she was paid well in excess of two hundred thousand dollars. The contract killers or hit men, so-called, who were also paid very significant amounts of money. So it was a huge elaborate network of witness payments and it was that network that caused the coroner so much of a problem.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina told the coroner she authorized payments for witnesses but said she did not know the details. She told Four Corners most of the money was to provide, "protection for very frightened witnesses". The payments prompted a review by the new Labor Attorney-General.

JIM MCGINTY, FORMER WA ATTORNEY-GENERAL: Looking at it, it became obvious that there was no evidence that she had paid people to tell lies, and there's nothing in the Australia legal system which says that you can't pay expenses of witnesses. Now, I think this went so far beyond what anyone could have reasonably regarded as reasonable expenses, and the nature of the evidence given was so bizarre, but nonetheless there was no evidence that there had been a criminal offence committed.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The coroner's findings were a public humiliation for Gina Rinehart. He rejected the paid witnesses as unreliable. He found Lang Hancock had died of heart disease and renal failure.

GINA RINEHART (2002): We are going to need time to review his findings to get a better understanding of his findings and after that I'd like to make a public comment.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The legal war between Gina and Rose finally settled on confidential terms a year later. Gina kept the Hancock empire in her iron grip. But it cost millions of dollars in legal fees alone.

MICH STYANT-BROWNE: The sheer amount of litigation... the volumes of lawyers that Gina churned through. The money involved, the different jurisdictions all over Australia, in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. I've certainly never seen anything like it.

JOHN HANCOCK: Churchlands is one of our first projects. It's a $2.3 million house. We're really quite proud of it because it showcases what the material can do.

MARIAN WILKINSON: John Hancock no longer works for his mother or Hancock Prospecting. He's developing an environmentally friendly building company.

JOHN HANCOCK: This is it! This is Churchlands; beautiful house. So come in, come in, I'll show you around. We've had inquiries from the World Bank for low-cost housing in Africa. We've also had inquiries out of New Zealand for the Christchurch rebuild, so we believe that the product has application across the world. I've got the drive and energy to promote this and get the right people involved and the right backers to bring this product to the world.

MARIAN WILKINSON: John is on his own quest to prove himself. He's joined Future Building Material Corporation. His partner, Jerome Naidoo, has invented a new lightweight wall panel they hope will cut costs and energy use in construction.

MARIAN WILKINSON: But John Hancock is also in the legal fight of his life with his mother over his inheritance.

(to John Hancock) Are you getting any money from the trust that was set up for you at the moment?

JOHN HANCOCK: No and I haven't for many years.

MARIAN WILKINSON: A lot of people would find that, frankly, hard to believe.

JOHN HANCOCK: Well it'd be nice if I was, but I have all the bad things about having money and none of the good things.

ALAN CAMP, FORMER LEGAL ADVISER FOR GINA RINEHART: He always loved John, and having a grandson... of course John was his first grandchild and he loved John.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Alan Camp, Gina Rinehart's old legal advisor on Lang's will, parted ways with her years ago. Today he's giving moral support to John Hancock during his fight with his mother.

ALAN CAMP: If the children, John and his sisters, don't consider that the trust is being managed properly from their perspective, then they will bring an application, as they're entitled to do, to remove it. And John's perspective is that he has no alternative.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The seeds of conflict between mother and son were sown soon after Lang's death. Gina Rinehart wanted to develop Hope Downs as her first big project, sinking millions into it.

GINA RINEHART (1997): It was my father who made all this possible for us. He was the one that found it. He's the one that gave me the early confidence even though he wasn't here to follow through with it, much as he'd love to be.

MARIAN WILKINSON: But who actually owned the main Hope Downs tenements was a fraught question. Lang had transferred them to the control of the Hancock Foundation, which he gave to his grandchildren in trust before he died. Gina was their trustee.

In late 1992, not long after Lang's death, the Hope Downs tenements were transferred from the Foundation back to Hancock Prospecting where Gina Rinehart had the majority of shares. In strongly worded statement to Four Corners, Gina Rinehart justified taking back the Hope Downs tenements because, she claimed, "Hancock Prospecting had always owned them". She said they had been "transferred improperly for grossly inadequate consideration and against the interests of Hancock Prospecting shareholders" when Lang Hancock moved them to the Foundation. She added, the Foundation was also "hopelessly insolvent" and unable to develop them.

When she transferred the Hope Downs tenements, Gina Rinehart was defending the Hancock empire from legal action by Rose. But twelve years on, Hope Downs was about to become one of the richest mines in Australia. And the children's share suddenly loomed as a source of friction between Gina Rinehart and her son.

MARIAN WILKINSON: In 2005, Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting sold half of Hope Downs to Rio Tinto and her billionaire status was sealed. Rio Tinto would take on the enormous job of actually building and operating the Hope Downs mine, making it one of the richest in Australia. But at the signing ceremony John had been supplanted by his sister, Bianca Rinehart.

ADELE FERGUSON: John was the first. He he had all visions of one day running Hancock Prospecting and then he fell out of favour badly. Then Bianca went into the business and lasted for a few years. There was a lot of friends talk about tensions there that never came out publicly like it did with John.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Court documents reveal John Hancock was the first child to question his mother about the Trust accounts and Hope Downs in the lead up to the lucrative Rio Tinto deal.

Mother and son reached an uneasy truce and John signed up to a family agreement on Hope Downs that confirmed Hancock Prospecting's ownership of the tenements. The agreement would also gag him from ever discussing their dispute.

(to John Hancock) I understand that you are legally bound by an agreement and you cannot talk to us about that, is that correct?

JOHN HANCOCK: That's correct. I'm bound by various agreements. I can't even name the agreement, so unfortunately I can't give you any further information.

MARIAN WILKINSON: And these are agreements that you signed with your mother?

JOHN HANCOCK: That's correct.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Fairfax reporter Adele Ferguson has written Gina Rinehart's unauthorized biography. She found Gina had gagged many former associates. And Gina's children, under the Hope Downs agreement, aren't even allowed to disparage her publicly.

ADELE FERGUSON: You know, it's very hard when you're in battle legally with your mother to not sound like you're being disparaging of her.

MARIAN WILKINSON: And what happens if they breach the Hope Downs Agreement, what action could she take?

ADELE FERGUSON: For them not to get access to any money in the trust.

MARIAN WILKINSON: So it could cost them a fortune.

ADELE FERGUSON: It absolutely could cost them a fortune, yes.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The children do have around 23 per cent of the enormously successful Hancock Prospecting company. But it was held in trust by their mother - under a trust deed that gave her sweeping powers.

ADELE FERGUSON: It was a huge amount of power because she could decide if one child could get nothing; another child could get lots of money depending on what she felt - as the trustee that was the sort of power that she had.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Are you getting any of this money from Hope Downs's now?

JOHN HANCOCK: No we are not.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Neither you nor your sisters?

JOHN HANCOCK: I can't speak for my sister Ginia, but my sisters Bianca and Hope and myself are not receiving anything.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina Rinehart has given big money and opportunity to her children, but largely at her discretion. Last year, this was set to change. Under the Hope Downs agreement the children were finally due to get at least 25 per cent of Hope Downs's profits. And the trust holding their share of Hancock Prospecting was due to vest giving them more control over their assets. Or so they thought. They were wrong.

ADELE FERGUSON: What happened was they got a letter a few days before saying that if the trust vests, then they would face bankruptcy because they'd have a massive capital gains tax bill, and so the suggestion that Gina made as trustee was that they sign a new deed which would give her even more control and they decided not to - they decided to contest it.

MARIAN WILKINSON: When the case got to the NSW Supreme Court it was revealed Gina Rinehart had extended her time as their trustee for another 57 years, without their knowledge.

ADELE FERGUSON: The trustee was extended to 2068, which would have made John in his 90s, so that really upset them as you can imagine.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina's youngest daughter, Ginia, has sided with her mother in the trust case. And so far, Gina Rinehart has out-manoeuvred her other three children. She has now vested the trust, but she warns they risk bankruptcy if they take up the shares. And they are not allowed to sell their shares outside the family.

ADELE FERGUSON: She now had 76 per cent of Hancock Prospecting and there's a... there's a funny clause in Hancock Prospecting in the... in the constitution which says that the shares can only be sold to the lineal descendants of Lang Hancock, so that means now that he's dead, it means the lineal descendants of Gina Rinehart. So they can't sell the shares.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina's old friend Michael Yabsley believes the case is hurting her.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: I think it would be a source of sadness for her, notwithstanding the, you know, the fairly clinical corporate and legal portrayal of everything that is going on. I think because of what I always saw as the close and loving relationship, I think it's probably the last thing that Gina Rinehart would've wanted.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina Rinehart said in a statement, her work in Hancock Prospecting has hugely "increased the value of assets in the children's trust by 40,000 per cent." And she castigated her three children who she said, "either do not work or do not work full time", but allow disparaging comments to be made, "for their unfortunate agendas".

JOHN HANCOCK: Obviously some of those things are quite hurtful but you move on and, I think the proof is in the pudding. Obviously I've been involved with the family company for more than a decade now that I've been forced to branch out on my own; I think that the product that I've... that I've associated myself with and helping develop will prove its mustard in in due course.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Has he got guts, do you think?

ALAN CAMP: He's got guts, yes. John's got guts.

MARIAN WILKINSON: John and his sisters know how costly it is to fight their mother in court. But so far they are not giving up.

JOHN HANCOCK: I've got quite a few friends in Asia and one of them offered to help me via a fundraising party in Hong Kong, so he managed to get about thirty people who all gave me a substantial sum of money. He also introduced me later that night to an extremely wealthy Chinese man who is helping me.

MARIAN WILKINSON: This is obviously a huge step for you. Do you think you're going to be able to follow through with this?

JOHN HANCOCK: There's very little other choice for me at the moment, so I think when your back's up against the wall, you just have to come out fighting.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The fight with her children has brought the media and Gina Rinehart into conflict. She fought to keep case from going public. Now she is taking legal action against the West Australian newspaper.

BOB CRONIN, GROUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, WEST AUSTRALIAN: Mrs Rinehart has issued subpoenas against the company, and against one of our reporters, seeking to have us disclose information that we believe would be a breach of confidence on the part of the reporter.

MARIAN WILKINSON: She wants all communications from her son John to the newspaper because he was quoted in some of their reports. Her lawyers told Four Corners this does not amount to seeking confidential sources. But the newspaper believes otherwise.

BOB CRONIN: There's no doubt that the endgame of this action, if we're not successful in setting the subpoena aside, someone is likely to end up jail - because you know as you know and I know, journalists will not... good journalists anyway, will not give up sources.

MARIAN WILKINSON: The subpoenas have raised anxiety across the media, because Gina Rinehart has also bought close to 19 per cent of Fairfax Media: owner of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age and the Australian Financial Review. She told Four Corners she had hoped to be viewed as a white knight by the Fairfax board. Those who know her well say she wants media influence.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: Well the media has always driven her nuts.

MARIAN WILKINSON: And you think she wants influence?

MICHAEL YABSLEY: I have absolutely no doubt that she wants influence. Um... it has been evident from her, from her very younger years, and it's been evident in... in a lot of what her father had to say, that the Australian media does not carry the message, or does not carry the right message.

MIKE NAHAN, WA LIBERAL MLA: She's again entering into an area that her father decided to do - his view was that he, the mining sector, WA, the north, weren't getting a fair crack of the whip in the media, and he was going to, in typical Lang fashion, do something about it by getting in there.

MARIAN WILKINSON: And you think she's doing the same thing now?

MIKE NAHAN: Yep.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Have you expressed scepticism to her about this?

MIKE NAHAN: All I said was that I would not invest in free-to-air TV right now. Or large newspaper, cause the internet is changing the world.

MARIAN WILKINSON: What did she say to that?

MIKE NAHAN: Got to do something.

MARIAN WILKINSON: With Fairfax in serious financial trouble and mass lay-offs announced last week, Gina Rinehart stepped up her pressure demanding three Fairfax board seats for her and her allies. But the board is resisting, because she is refusing to agree to Fairfax's charter of editorial independence which protects the integrity of its journalists.

DAVID MARR, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD JOURNALIST: The board cannot interfere with the reporting of the papers. That's been honoured for a couple of decades. Mrs Rinehart wants to get on the board of Fairfax and break that agreement.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Her determination to dismiss the charter of editorial independence has not only alarmed journalists at Fairfax, it has ignited political concerns in Canberra.

WAYNE SWAN, TREASURER: I think that has very big implications for our democracy. I think we should all be very concerned at this turn of events. She certainly has a commercial right to do what she has done, but it appears to be that she will go a step further, not respect the Charter of Independence and reserve her right to direct journalists with instructions that follow her commercial imperatives.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina Rinehart is already a powerful player on the national stage. Media ownership would certainly hugely amplify that power. If she finally builds her own mine at Roy Hill Gina Rinehart's wealth will soar beyond the imagination of most Australians. But to her critics, she will always owe her success to her father's legacy.

JIM MCGINTY: Gina inherited her wealth. It is built on mineral resources that belong to you and me, and to everyone else.

MICHAEL YABSLEY: Whatever anyone says about Gina Rinehart, what she has achieved is a juggernaut-type outcome. And no-one can take that away from her, and all the signs are that that trajectory will continue.

MARIAN WILKINSON: Gina Rinehart has taken on all opponents, including her own family, in the quest for her Holy Grail. It could one day make the richest person in the world. But the path she had chosen has already made her one of the most polarizing people in Australia.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Gina Rinehart continuing a family tradition. Although she wouldn't be interviewed on-camera for tonight's story, she has submitted lengthy answers to questions by email, which we've posted on our website. That's the program for tonight, join us again next week. But for now, good night.

End of transcript

Background Information

NEWS UPDATES

Rinehart ordered to pay children's legal bills | SMH | 30 Jul 2012 - Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has been ordered to pay the legal bills of three of her four children incurred in their long-running battle to remove her as trustee of the family's multibillion-dollar trust.

Rinehart's son continues fight for family fortune | ABC News | 26 Jun 2012 - The only son of mining magnate Gina Reinhart has vowed to keep fighting his mother in court over access to the family's fortune. John Hancock gave his first television interview about the bitter family dispute on last night's Four Corners program.

Rinehart ups stake in Ten, threatens to abandon Fairfax | ABC News | 26 Jun 2012 - Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart has increased her stake in Network Ten and is threatening to abandon Fairfax if she does not get seats on the board.

Q & A WITH GINA RINEHART

Questions from Four Corners for Gina Rinehart - Reporter Marian Wilkinson put written questions to Gina Rinehart for the report after she declined to be interviewed. Read the questions and answers sent on behalf of Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. [PDF 371Kb]

KEY DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS

Four Corners seeks access to Hancock Papers - Four Corners sought access to the pleadings in the matter of Hancock Family Memorial Foundation vs Fieldhouse. Enclosed is the judgement by Justice Le Miere of the WA Supreme Court on the application. The decision, in the program's favour, was reported in The Australian and The West Australian newspapers. [PDF 865Kb]

Lang Hancock Coronial Inquest | April 2002 - The Executive Summary of the Report of the Cororner's Court of Western Australia on the Inquest into the death of Lang Hancock. [PDF 1Mb]

Register of Exploration Licenses for Hope Downs Tenements | Western Australia's Dept. of Mines & Petroleum

RELATED NEWS AND MEDIA

Life of Gina Rinehart | ABC News Breakfast | 25 Jun 2012 - Four Corners' reporter Marian Wilkinson discusses tonight's story on mining magnate Gina Rinehart, on ABC News Breakfast.

Iron wills mine a deep vein of bitterness | SMH | 24 Jun 2012 - Author Adele Ferguson reveals the obstacles she battled and overcame to write her unofficial biography of the world's richest woman.

'We were children of a lesser dad' | SMH | 24 Jun 2012 - Gina Rinehart's estranged son John Hancock has told the author of a new book that his mother favoured the two daughters of her second husband because they were seen as genetically superior.

Gina Rinehart: from mining magnate to Australia's newest media mogul | The Guardian | 19 Jun 2012 - Rightwing billionaire's decision to increase stake in struggling Fairfax is about influencing the political debate, say friends.

Rinehart won't bully us, Fairfax says | ABC News | 19 Jun 2012 - The Fairfax board is fighting back against mining magnate Gina Rinehart's push for three seats on the troubled media company's board.

Four Corners wins access to files on Gina Rinehart's dispute with father's lawyer | The Australian | 30 May 2012 - Four Corners has won access to court documents that are part of a marathon legal battle between mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her late father Lang Hancock's lawyer.

Furore over Rinehart's guest workers | AFR | 25 May 2012 - The union leader who put Julia Gillard in power has slammed the government's plan to import 1700 foreign guest workers for Gina Rinehart's $6.5 billion Roy Hill iron ore mine, labelling it "sheer lunacy" and an "early Christmas present" to the West Australian billionaire.

What Gina Wants: Gina Rinehart's quest for respect and gratitude | The Monthly | May 2012 - A comprehensive essay on Gina Hancock and her family history, by Nick Bryant.

Look, mum, I traded $2.9 million | SMH | 11 Mar 2012 - John Hancock, the son of Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has laid bare statements showing his financial earnings to prove he is earning his own living.

Audio: Swan launches second assault on biggest mining billionaires | ABC News | 5 Mar 2012 - The Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has intensified his campaign against some of the biggest names in Australian mining. Last week in an essay he called for a pitched battle against the influence of vested interests.

Gina Rineharts children arm for lengthy war | The Australian | 17 Mar 2012 - Gina Rinehart's three eldest children are gearing up for a lengthy and costly legal battle against their mother, with son John Hancock in Hong Kong yesterday seeking out finance to assemble a warchest for what is likely to be an epic stoush.

Battle of the disappointed billionaires | The Australian | 17 Mar 2012 - The Rinehart family feud underlines a fact no parent, no matter how wealthy or powerful, can escape. When it comes to rearing children, you get out what you put in. If the kids are useless, the parents must cop a lot of the blame.

Rinehart children seek trustee they can trust | ABC AM | 13 Mar 2012 - Three of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart's children have accused her of deceit and dishonesty in her management of a multi billion dollar family trust. The claim is made in documents released by the Supreme Court in Sydney. The documents also show Gina Rinehart urged her children to drop legal action and two federal politicians supported her.

Gina Rinehart's children say their billionaire mother 'pressured' them to give up trust | The Australian | 12 Mar 2012 - Gina Rinehart's three eldest children claim their mother made "repeated attempts to place emotional, financial and legal pressure" on them to sign over control of the family trust set up for their benefit.

Rinehart's bombshell to kids over Hancock legacy | The West Australian | 10 Mar 2012 - The House of Hancock has rarely been without conflict. But even by its standards, the first weekend in September was explosive. By Steve Pennells.

Gina Rinehart's 'lost' half-sister Hilda Kickett speaks | The Daily Telegraph | 14 Feb 2012 - The secret half-sister of mining heiress Gina Rinehart has told of her difficult early life, her relationship with her father Lang Hancock and her love for her nieces and nephew.

Audio: From mining to media: Reinhart and Fairfax | RN Sunday Profile | 5 Feb 2012 - Ms Rhinehart is no shrinking violet when it comes to expressing political opinions: she's dead against a mining tax, thinks global warming is a con and would like to see liberal incentives for investment in her home patch of North Western Australia. So why would she want a significant stake in a troubled media company like Fairfax?

The miner and the media wheel of fortune | SMH | 4 Feb 2012 - Gina Rinehart is unlikely to make a full bid for Fairfax, but she may want to wield power in the boardroom, writes Elizabeth Knight.

Son breaks his silence in Rinehart battle | The West Australian | 4 Feb 2012 - The family feud ripping apart the Hancock dynasty took a dramatic turn yesterday when Gina Rinehart's estranged son launched a blistering attack on his multi-billionaire mother. John Hancock's decision to speak publicly has shattered the secrecy which has surrounded the feud since he joined his two sisters in legal action against their mother five months ago. By Steve Pennells.

Emails from Gina Rinehart's daughters | The Daily Telegraph | 3 Feb 2012 - Enclosed are some of the emails Gina Rinehart received from her daughters.

Profile: Who is Gina Rinehart? | ABC News | 1 Feb 2012 - Mining tycoon Gina Rinehart is Australia's richest person, with a personal wealth estimated to top $10.3 billion.

BACKGROUND

CFMEU Mining - Australia's union representing mining and energy workers. cfmeu.com.au/

Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd - www.hancockprospecting.com.au/

A Timeline: Hancock Prospecting - www.hancockprospecting.com.au/.../hancock-timeline

RELATED ABC PROGRAMS

Casualties of the Boom | 25 May 2012 - Next on Four Corners, how massive mining developments are killing communities in regional Australia. Watch Online.

Iron and Dust | 18 Jul 2011 - The story behind the stalled negotiations that could create one of Australia's biggest mining projects, and why two men who claim they have the community's best interests at heart can't find agreement. Flash Video Presentation.

House of Hancock | Australian Story | 1997 - Read a transcript of the 1997 Aus Story profile on Gina Hancock.