Excerpts from: Joanna Parson, “Gina Hancock: Australia’s iron-ore heiress … cool, quiet girl with the power to move mountains,” Woman’s Day, June 16, 1975, pp. 4, 7, 19. For more Gina Rinehart and Lang Hancock see GinaRinehart.info and LangHancock.info

“People say I’m the spitting image of my father in the way I think,” she says. “And in major things we see eye to eye. I agree with all his ideas for the development of the north-west, our mining plans, and about Westralian Secession politics.”

Despite these regular PR or business tours, her basic week is spent in one of her father’s office buildings.

“I don’t have a title. Some people call me Dad’s personal assistant. No, I don’t have a secretary of my own. Although I type myself, I can ask one of his three secretaries to do work for me if I’m pressed.”

A large part of her week is spent working for the Westralian Secessionist Movement. Says Don Thomas, leader of the movement:

“About January last year Gina came to help me. Almost as a fulltime volunteer secretary. She devoted all her time to it. Very keen she was.”

“Gina picked up a lot from the literature we produce. She assembles our newsletter (editor is too grand a title for our small organisation). She has a very good command of facts and figures …”

“What’s she like to work with? Placid. She never flaps. Never loses her temper. Now and then she become irate — if someone lets her down. An act of unreliability, irresponsibility, tends to annoy her. But I’ve never seen her angry or nasty, and she doesn’t harbour grudges. She’s a very pleasant little soul. Very keen not to upset people.”

“I think she feels conscious of what life has done for her and she certainly goes out of her way not to take advantage of people. It’s an incredible position she finds herself in, but she remains quite unaffected.”

Argues convincingly for Secession

Gina claims “it only takes 20 minutes” to convert people to the idea of Westralian Secession. That economically Western Australia is another country — it produces 22.5 per cent of Australia’s wealth with only 7.5 per cent of the total population. She feels it’s unfair “for us to have to buy all our goods and services from the east (eastern States) at high prices”.

She talks logically and convincingly, giving you figures that argue well for her cause. But public speaking?

“Oh no, I’m behind the scenes. It’s not all that good to have Hancock’s daughter out front. So many people think the movement is ‘just another Hancock benefit’. Which it absolutely isn’t!”

What does she call herself professionally on her tax returns? “I don’t know, our accountant handles those. But on my passport I travel as ‘Secessionist’. Which always raises a couple of eyebrows … No such career? There is now!”