Billionaire Gina Rinehart has been accused of insulting her workforce and trying to incite moral panic in comments she made in a rare video appearance.

Speaking in a 10-minute video posted on the Sydney Mining Club's website, Mrs Rinehart did not waver from her core beliefs.

"The evidence is unarguable that Australia is indeed becoming too expensive," she said.

Mrs Rinehart repeated her mantra that Australia could not afford the carbon tax or the mineral resources rent tax.

Australia's productivity and wages, according to her, worked against it.

"As Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens put it in mid-June, 'productivity is the imperative to survive', especially as we are a high-wage country competing against low-wage ones," she said.

But one analyst from the Workplace Research Centre at the University of Sydney's business school says Mrs Rinehart is trying to incite moral panic.

Professor John Buchanan was complimentary of Mrs Rinehart's delivery, but not the content of her speech.

"A very eloquent speech. Very well put together and weaves together all the elements of what I would call the discourse of moral panic," he said.

'Horror movie'

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In lamenting the costs associated with running a business in Australia, Mrs Rinehart pointed out that some African miners work for $2 a day.

The United Nations labour agency estimates there are between 100,000 and 250,000 child gold miners in West Africa.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Dave Oliver says Mrs Rinehart's workforce has been insulted by her comparisons with Africa.

"It took me a bit of time to work out if I was watching a comedy skit or a horror movie," he said.

"It's an insult to all the workers who work for her company.

"It just beggars belief that she is trying to advocate a position where for us to be competitive we have to look at the conditions that we see in third-world countries.

"She is explicitly saying we should build an economic trade zone without less laws on (industrial relations), less laws regarding taxation, which is very clear - pay less tax, exploit workers."

Special economic zone

One of the most interesting suggestions Mrs Rinehart made was for the creation of a new economic zone for northern Australia.

In her vision, it would have fewer taxes and regulations while welcoming investment.

Professor Jeff Bennett from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University says there are concerns about setting up such a scheme.

"We think about a two-speed economy at the moment, this would create a two-zone economy across Australia," he said.

"I'd much prefer to see the regulatory environment being relaxed right across the country so industries could compete on a level playing field across geographic zones."

But Professor Buchanan does not think the idea will work.

"It's been pretty well established that this is extremely good for the companies that are involved, but they do very little to leave an enduring infrastructure or benefit to the host nations," he said.

Old narrative

He says comparisons would be better made with countries that have more in common with Australia.

"What I think is missing entirely from the Australian debate is consideration of the Norwegian experience," he said.

"They have an average rate of 78 per cent tax on profits out of the oil sector there.

"Oil companies are queuing up to deal with the Norwegian oil sector because that tax rate is used very creatively by the Norwegian government to encourage employment and further resource development."

He says the fact that Africans work for $2 a day does not tell the whole story.

"If you want to look at this in historic terms, this is a narrative that's been floating around for the best part of 200 years in Australia," he said.

"Australians have been lectured at by their masters for a long time that unless we cave in, people from warmer climes are going to run down our living standards.

"Now if we'd been following that narrative for the last 200 years, we wouldn't be where we are now."