Mining magnate Gina Rinehart calls for ‘iron dome’ and investment in sea mines, drones

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has blasted Australia’s poor defences and questioned whether the AUKUS security pact is enough to fortify the nation against threats, calling for investment in drones, smart sea mines and an Israel-style “iron dome”.

Mrs Rinehart, speaking to The Australian in the US, said she was “very worried about the lack of ­defence of Australia”, as she backed the 2021 three-way defence alliance between the US, UK and Australia to provide the ADF with nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s but doubted it would be able to pay dividends soon enough to protect Australia.

“Submarines are far too far in future, I’m not anti them, but they are too far away … America is a very long way away, we’ve got to actually do much more for ourselves on defence and much sooner,” Mrs Rinehart said.

“We urgently need to better consider our ports and sea lanes, because if we want to rely on our wonderful friends in AUKUS they won’t be able to send us heavy equipment if we don’t control our ports and sea lanes.”

Her comments came amid a growing debate about the adequacy and cost of Australia’s defence amid reports that only one of six Collins-class submarines is operational given the maintenance required for the others. Two of the six Australians submarines are being serviced in Adelaide while another three are being maintained at Western Australia’s Garden Island naval base, defence sources have confirmed.

“If we don’t have strong defence we don’t have anything, we won’t have our country,” Mrs Rinehart said.

The interview with Australia’s richest person came as the Albanese government cancelled a planned $7bn military-grade satellite communications system that it had approved 18 months ago, owing to a lack of funds.

“We need to learn from more recent war situations, for example in Ukraine where a couple of hundred-dollar drones destroyed a ­billion-dollar Russian war ship, yet Australia has, very wrongly in my view, cancelled the war drone program,” Mrs Rinehart said.

In 2022, the Morrison government cancelled a $1.3bn defence department project to acquire up to 12 armed drones in order to ­direct funding towards a $10bn ­cybersecurity program.

“We need Israel-style domes, we need many, many war drones, and we need many, many smart sea mines,” she said.

Donald Trump’s campaign for the US presidential election has also promised to “build a great iron dome missile defence shield over our entire country” according to the 2024 Republican Party platform, a promise that comes amid renewed focus on missile defence following repeated attacks on Israel by Iran that have been successfully thwarted by the renowned iron dome defence.

“We can’t limit our thoughts to potentially one only threat. There’s instability in the world, ­Israel, Ukraine, their neighbours and supporters, we can’t just think we’re so far away we don’t have to worry; remember the world was worried about North Korea when Trump was president, people were worried there’d be World War III,” Mrs Rinehart said. She also slammed the “crazy situation of approximately seven days’ fuel reserve”, describing as “dangerous” the fact that Australia has long maintained fuel reserves well below the recommended level.

Turning to Australian politics, Mrs Rinehart praised Coalition leader Peter Dutton as “a truly good person, through and through, a politician of conviction, not spur of the moment fads, definitely a patriot”.

“He bravely stands up for the interests of Australians, he’s got some great people to call upon to assist him in the National Party,” she said, adding a special mention for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price: “She is a true conviction politician, or leader really, dedicated, articulate, clever and brave; she should be a future leader.”

Mrs Rinehart also picked John Gorton, a Liberal prime minster from 1968 to 1971, as one of Australia’s best leaders. “In my lifetime he’s probably been our best prime minister, government tape, taxes and national debt were far lower then … I liked him a lot, a great patriot and war hero”.