EXCLUSIVE
The biggest funder of both One Nation and far-right lobby group Advance, multi-billionaire Gina Rinehart, is refusing to say whether the political entities should tone down their hateful rhetoric.
Despite widespread calls for moderation following last week’s attack on Independent Helen Haines, Rinehart is refusing to follow suit, despite both the seriousness of the matter and the ongoing hate spread by her far-right political groups.
Instead, the mining tycoon has used the incident to insert herself and attack the ABC — the nation’s most trusted media outlet — over a satirical piece in July, for which it has apologised.
“The mining tycoon has used the incident to insert herself and attack the ABC”
Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, is by far the biggest funder of Advance, which aggressively spreads vast amounts of hateful messaging, bigoted imagery and disinformation, much of it AI-generated.
The far-right group runs rolling vicious and personal attacks on ALP, independent and Greens politicians, clinically disseminating its hateful material to its hundreds of thousands of social media followers, including over 220,000 on Facebook alone.
“Advance is an appalling organisation, and those who fund it are not acting in the cause of social cohesion” — Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke
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A “threat to Australia’s way of life”, says far-right lobby group Advance. Source: Advance/Facebook
Rinehart is also the biggest funder of One Nation, whose leader Pauline Hanson today defended a cartoon showing independent senator Lidia Thorpe being run over by a bus.
Rinehart refused to answer when asked by The Klaxon whether she considered One Nation and Advance should tone down their rhetoric.
She also refused to answer whether she agreed with calls generally for “political rhetoric to be toned down in light of the attack on Ms Haines”.
Instead, via a spokesperson, she deflected and furthered her campaign against the ABC.
The entire statement states:
“What happened to Helen Haines was horrible. If The Klaxon is serious about calling out violent rhetoric, it should start with the taxpayer-funded ABC, which repeatedly aired a segment depicting the politically motivated torture and murder of Mrs Rinehart. We note this encouragement of political violence has been completely ignored by The Klaxon.”
Rinehart’s refusal to condemn One Nation and Advance’s hateful rhetoric — or to even call for it to be toned down — comes as AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett yesterday drew a direct link between inflammatory language and the rise in violent threats.
She cited “examples like that”, when asked about a One Nation video of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews being run over by a bus.
Hanson today told 2GB she would not remove the cartoon, or a 2023 cartoon showing Thorpe similarly being run over, saying “they will not be going anywhere”.
Thorpe told the Sydney Morning Herald she had reported numerous death threats users had posted on Hanson’s social media pages, that One Nation had not removed over many months.
Rinehart-funded Advance clinically spreads vast amounts of hateful material. Source: Advance/Facebook
Federal Parliament suspended ordinary business today to pay tributes to Haines, who lost two legs after being rammed by a four-wheel drive, in an alleged targeted act of political violence.
In July the ABC ran an episode of Around the World in which a contestant described a fictional scenario involving an attack on Rinehart, including mixing her “guts” to “make one big sausage roll”.
Rinehart lodged a formal complaint and threatened to sue.
The independent ABC Ombudsman determined the episode did not breach the ABC’s editorial standards and labelled the segment “satirical and exaggerated commentary” and not a call for violence.
Regardless, ABC managing director Hugh Marks apologised to Rinehart and the episode was removed.
It also updated its editorial guidelines, despite some stating this was overkill.
Rinehart is refusing to say if Advance should tone down its rhetoric. Source: Advance/Facebook
Despite being one of, if not the nation’s biggest, funder of political hate, Rinehart has been seen as sensitive regarding criticism of herself.
“Despite being one of the nation’s biggest funders of political hate, Rinehart has been seen as sensitive regarding criticism of herself”
Her media team has threatened many media outlets, including independent media, amid concerns from journalists they are being “policed” on what they say by Rinehart.
“Rinehart’s media team are known to send extensive responses to articles she takes issue with that mention her by name,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Billionaire Gina Rinehart and former Liberal Party vice president Teena McQueen (right) at a Trump Rally in the US. Source: Hancock Prospecting
In 2024 Rinehart demanded the National Gallery of Australia remove a picture of her. The gallery refused, and the incident went global, appearing on the BBC, CNN and cited by Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.
The Rinehart-funded Advance’s hateful rhetoric includes suggesting immigrants in detention are “rapists, paedophiles and murderers”; claiming the Indigenous Welcome to Country is part of a secretive plan by “elites” to “delegitimise Australia’s history”; and the spreading division ahead of Anzac Day, where the Indigenous Welcome to Country was booed.
It runs imagery suggesting Australia is being overrun by immigrants, including claiming the nation’s “freedom, security and prosperity are under threat” because of “wide open” borders.
Advance, created in 2018, imported far-right tactics from US, and its growth has been inline with the increase in hateful and inflammatory public discourse in Australia.
In 2024-25, the latest data, Rinehart gave Advance $895,000, Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) disclosures show, making her its biggest donor by a factor of three.
Rinehart, a climate denier who has spread conspiracy theories including telling staff to drink hot water to avoid Covid, is a prominent cheerleader for US President Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Advance aggressively spreads fake imagery and hateful content. Source: Advance
The far-right lobby group Advance — registered as a political entity with the AEC — falsely claims to be a “grassroots” group of “ordinary Aussies”.
In fact, its main funders are a small handful of the nation’s richest people.
The lobby group heavily “farms-in” members of the public to donate, which it then points to to falsely claim it is a genuine “grassroots” community movement.
Last year The Klaxon reported one of Advance’s biggest funders was the family trust of the nation’s Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal, whose husband John Roth is a vastly wealthy property developer.
“Advance is an appalling organisation, and those who fund it are not acting in the cause of social cohesion,” Burke said in response.
Segal rejected calls to stand down over the scandal.
Australia is under threat from bad actors.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
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Thank you,
Anthony Klan
Editor, The Klaxon
