Gina Rinehart-hosted fundraiser for Pauline Hanson eclipses rival Liberal Party dinner
Originally published by Will Glasgow of The Australian.
12.06.2026
Before we get to who was along for Pauline Hanson’s ritzy fundraiser in Perth at Gina Rinehart’s new corporate headquarters, Margin Call better deal with the latest bad news for Angus Taylor.
The Liberal leader was also in Western Australia on Thursday. He held a fundraising dinner in Perth on the same night as the One Nation leader.
Comparisons can be cruel and so it was with the Night of the Two Dinners.
Margin Call is told there were just over a dozen people along for dinner with Taylor, each paying $2000 a head.
Meanwhile, over at Hancock Prospecting’s new $250m HQ, we hear more than 50 people had paid $15,000 each for dinner with the visiting One Nation leader and Rinehart – her host and chief patron. That’s more than $750,000 worth.
There has been scepticism about just how much money is actually flowing into One Nation, including this week from the PM Anthony Albanese.
But a Perth business source told Margin Call there was nothing fake about the attendance at the Thursday-night dinner.
Along with Hanson, the One Nation entourage included the party’s chief strategist, James Ashby, and its West Australian Senator, Tyron Whitten.
The room was packed with senior business people from mining, agriculture and energy. Among them was Warburton Group chair Tim Roberts (worth $1.2bn on The List) and chair of lithium miner Liontown Tim Goyder (worth $955m).
And, of course, Rinehart herself (worth $41.7bn).
“One Nation are the billionaires’ party,” Labor national president Wayne Swan said on Friday.
To the horror of the Coalition, that is becoming increasingly true.
Even more worrying for the sons and daughters of Menzies is that many people who previously supported them are saying hitherto unimaginable things about the One Nation leader, who was once a pariah among Australia’s wealthiest.
“She can definitely win,” was a common refrain among the business attendees impressed by Hanson’s performance on Thursday night.
Albanese is determined to prove them wrong. He and his campaign brain, Paul Erickson, still see a path to a third term of Labor.
As for Taylor? After this week, even Sussan Ley must almost feel sorry for him. Well, almost.
