http://m.theaustralian.com.au/busin...t-out-of-the-pub/story-e6frg8zx-1226461138251
AUSTRALIA'S richest person, Gina Rinehart, has issued a stern rebuke to those jealous of the wealthy: start working harder and cut down on drinking, smoking and socialising.
The controversial mining magnate also attacks Australia's "class warfare" and insists it is billionaires such as herself who are doing more than anyone to help the poor by investing their money and creating jobs. Mrs Rinehart also suggests the government should lower the minimum wage of $606.40 per week and cut taxes to stimulate employment.
In her regular column in Australian Resources and Investment magazine, she warns that Australia risks heading down the same path as European economies ruined by "socialist" policies, high taxes and excessive regulation.
Mrs Rinehart, publisher Fairfax Media's biggest shareholder, takes a shot at the media for failing to scrutinise "socialist" policies and for publishing stories that celebrate environmental protesters.
She says Australia must return to its roots by encouraging people to invest and build.
"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," writes Mrs Rinehart, who has built a $20 billion-plus mining empire since inheriting lucrative tenements from her father, Lang Hancock, in 1992.
"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working.
"Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others."
Mrs Rinehart claims anti-business policies hurt the poor and the young more than the wealthy. "The terrible millionaires and billionaires can often invest in other countries," she says. "And if they do suffer, what does that really mean? Maybe that their teenagers don't get the cars they wanted, or a better beach house, or maybe the holiday to Europe is cut.
"No, those who hurt the most when investments are killed off by taxes, green tape and socialist policies that are not friendly to business or conducive to investment are those who usually vote for the anti-business socialist parties. And for them, the price is very high. It's a job lost, when they have few savings, a mortgage to meet and children to clothe and feed.
"The millionaires and billionaires who choose to invest in Australia are actually those who most help the poor and our young."
Mrs Rinehart's latest tirade comes as she attempts to secure up to $7bn in debt funding to develop one of Australia's biggest iron ore projects, Roy Hill, in Western Australia's Pilbara region. But the iron ore price has slumped to less than $US100 a tonne, casting some doubt over her plans to formally approve the project by early next year.
Mrs Rinehart last week attempted - and failed - to sell a 5 per cent stake in Fairfax after the company unveiled a massive $2.732bn loss.
The magnate's Hancock Prospecting holds a 14.9 per cent stake in the publishing company.
