Article by Elizabeth Knight, courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald
25.11.2025
For years one of the most hazardous places to stand was between mining billionaire Andrew Forrest and a microphone. These days the even-wealthier Gina Rinehart is challenging Forrest on visibility and hyperbole.
Most have become very familiar with Forrest eulogising about the climate-induced end of the planet. At the other extreme, Rinehart is sermonising about the catastrophic effect that environmentalists and leftist “watermelons” are having on Australian industry, farmers and even schoolchildren.
She believes kids are being fed “garbage” about climate and giant green incinerators are devouring taxpayer money.
Watermelon isn’t just a fruit, it is also a derogatory term for climate activists who are seen as having left-wing goals, meaning they are “green on the outside” (environmentalism) but “red on the inside” (socialism).
Rinehart, whose views may be invigorated by having a like-minded Donald Trump in power, isn’t taking any green prisoners.
She used a rousing speech over the weekend (delivered by one of her managers from the helm of an iron ore tanker), to outline the perils of the slavish pursuit of net zero emissions and take a long-winded swipe at the government for paying disproportionate attention to decarbonisation with insufficient regard to the costs it imposes on business and those struggling with the cost of living.
Rinehart has long occupied the ultra-conservative end of the political spectrum, so her politics on climate are not new.
But the decibel level of her arguments and her preparedness to aim for a larger audience is what has put her in “share of voice” competition with her climate nemesis Forrest.
Let’s not forget that both have a voice thanks to the billions they have made extracting iron ore.
Rinehart wants to whip up a frenzy from the large number of unheard Australians – encouraging them to use TikTok or Reddit, send letters or call radio shock jocks to pressure the government to abandon emissions reduction policies that she says are increasing our power bills and forcing pensioners to choose between rent and food or medical treatment.
“If government truly cared about its duty to Australians, they would stand up to the noisy watermelons and the far left,” Rinehart wrote. “We need to help them, don’t we?”
It’s fair to say Forrest has become a little quieter recently, coinciding with setbacks to his ambitious green hydrogen plans after questions about their financial viability. But he remains true to his cause and won’t ever stop campaigning.
His iron ore company Fortescue had committed $US6.2 billion ($9.6 billion) to renewables to reach its decarbonisation goals by 2030.
So it was curious that Rinehart’s recent speech didn’t single out Forrest or Fortescue (unless he is one of the watermelons to whom she refers).
Instead, fellow iron ore miner and joint venture partner Rio Tinto received a reprimand, alongside BHP, for investing in climate abatement technologies.
She wants the shareholders of these companies to think about the green of their money rather than the environment.
“Mum and dad shareholders, what happened to your most recent half-yearly dividends from BHP, Rio and others, lowest in the last seven or eight years? Your dividends are being sacrificed on the green altar,” Rinehart wrote.
“How many billions are each of those public companies spending on net zero?”
Rio Tinto is looking at spending $US5 billion to $US6 billion over the eight years to 2030 and BHP is planning for about $US4 billion over seven years. These might sound like big numbers, but they are spread over several years and should be measured against BHP’s 2025 revenue of $US51.3 billion and Rio’s revenue of $US26.9 billion for the first half of 2025.
”Billions and billions and billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, and billions more of shareholders’ money, is being thrown into this transition, or what I call the huge green incinerator,” Rinehart added in the speech.
“An incinerator gobbling up more taxpayers’ money for charging stations for EVs, hidden subsidies, luxe green gabfests for those enjoying the green trough, handouts for studying even dubious things if the green theme is included, and rescue packages for industries that can no longer afford the increased government burdens.”
Her passion for mining is now clearly matched by her hyperbolic disdain for the government’s environmental policies.
