There’s no question that two of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart ’s side hustles, Rossi Boots and Driza-Bone coats, make quality clobber, but fashion-forward youth brands they ain’t. So CBD is delighted to see Australia’s richest person get down with the kids, with Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, sponsoring the Next Gen group show at the Brisbane Fashion Festival in August for the third year running. Gina Rinehart with members of Australia’s artistic swimming team.
It wouldn’t be controversial by now to say that Hancock’s sponsorship deals can come with a layer of complexity. This masthead recently revealed an intriguing list of demands delivered to Swimming Australia in 2021 by Hancock as part of a proposed sponsorship deal. So we naturally wondered if there were any strings attached to Hancock’s assistance for Brisbane’s fledgling fashionistas.
While the company told us nothing, a festival spokesperson indicated that the sponsorship was enviably uncomplicated. Loading “Our relationship with Mrs Rinehart has been nothing but positive and she is a wonderful ambassador of the Australian fashion industry,” the spokesperson said. But the billionaire’s relations with Australia’s premier art galleries are a little messier.
In a Senate estimates hearing last week, it emerged that the National Portrait Gallery was still negotiating the conditions for accepting from Rinehart an officially approved portrait of her – five years after talks on the .