2GB | Ben Fordham | Gina Rinehart offers advice to school leavers

Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has reminded school leavers that going to university doesn’t guarantee a bright future.

Transcript:

BEN FORDHAM: Year 12 students, your HSC exams are almost over and soon you’ll be deciding what’s next. But before you rush to lock in to your uni preference, here’s something worth remembering: university is not the only path to success. Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has reminded school leavers that going to uni does not guarantee a bright future. She’s told The West Australian newspaper, “for many people, university will not be a suitable pathway. You can be well-read like Charlie Kirk and not attend university”.

Charlie was of course the creator of the major political movement called Turning Point before he was assassinated in the US. Gina Rinehart says “many Australians too did not attend university, including the great ones like Sir Sidney Kidman, James Nicholas of Cobb & Co and my dad, Lang Hancock”.

So, let’s just pause on that because these are big names in Australia’s story. Sidney Kidman, the cattle king, left school at 13. He didn’t go to uni. He built an empire that became the largest cattle business in the world. That’s the Sidney Kidman story – Sir Sidney. James Nicholas from Cobb & Co. never made it to uni, he helped build the Stagecoach network that connected towns across Australia long before planes and long before highways. That’s James Nicholas from Cobb & Co. And then you’ve got Gina’s dad, Lang Hancock. He never went to university either. He discovered the iron ore that became Australia’s biggest export. No degrees, no diplomas, just drive.

Gina Rinehart also points out some of our cultural icons weren’t university graduates either. She says “even Australia’s greatest writer, Henry Lawson, and great poet Banjo Patterson didn’t go to university. And our former Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove went to Duntroon – not a university”. Her message, leadership matters more than following the crowd. Gina Rinehart says, “our country needs young people who will become great leaders, people who deal in facts and common sense as opposed to ideology or cults”. And finally, she says, “base your life on common sense, truth and your convictions, even if they might be unpopular”.

I think it’s strong advice because right now Australia doesn’t need more degrees, we need more doers. We’re desperately short of tradies. To build a million new homes in four years, we’ll need 130,000 construction workers and 42,000 electricians. While some uni grads are still looking for work, 95% of apprentices walk into a job and they get paid while they train. No HECS debt, no waiting around. As Professor Barney Glover says, “we can get by without a marketing executive or an accountant, but you can’t get by without an electrician, a plumber or a roofer”. So, parents, students, teachers, let’s drop the snobbery that sometimes we hear. Some of Australia’s greatest stories started without a uni degree.

So, some wise words from Gina Rinehart. She says, the real test isn’t what letters you have after your name. It’s the work you do, the values you hold and the difference you make.