Gina: a real life Succession story, episode 2

Off Duty | The Guardian Investigates

The Guardian

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does Gina Rinehart, like her father before her, use wealth and power to influence Australian politics? Rinehart’s first major foray into the political spotlight was successfully lobbying against Labor’s mining super-profit tax in the early 2010s. But what did she learn from her father, Lang Hancock, who campaigned to overturn the iron ore export embargo in the 1950s, setting the foundation for their family fortune?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:09.2	Would you have described her as a friend?
0:13.4	Yes, yeah.
0:16.8	Yeah, very much so.
0:21.7	In addition to being a friend, Michael Yabsley also worked for Gina Reinhardt,
0:26.8	and he actually remembers planning the Wake Up Australia flight with her back in 1979.
0:31.7	That was the extravagant birthday gift that Gina organised for Lang for his 70th birthday
0:36.5	that you heard about in the last
0:37.8	episode.
0:39.3	Michael was actually meant to be on that flight as well, but he had to pull out.
0:44.2	Oh, well, she was furious.
0:47.0	What does a furious Gina Reinhardt look like?
0:50.8	Very composed and that melodic voice sort of goes up a few what are they called octaves or whatever it is
1:00.8	and she gets a very stern look on her face I think I was always pretty right in saying that the
1:08.1	the higher the pitch got the the crankier she was.
1:13.8	Michael and Gina are no longer friends, but he does remember that time fondly.
1:18.9	It was a pretty close and happy sort of relationship. And so I saw a lot of her.
1:25.3	You'd have to blot out the last 30 years and go back earlier than that.
1:31.6	She loves having a nice time.
1:34.1	She loves going out to dinner,
1:35.8	loves being with a small number of people who she can trust.
1:40.4	And with Gina, trust is everything.
	...

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