Gina Rinehart loses it at rival billionaire Andrew ‘ Twiggy ‘ Forrest – as she exposes how we can bring down power bills once and for all

Gina Rinehart has taken a swipe at fellow billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest over his failed ‘green hydrogen’ dreams, while arguing that ‘her friend’ Donald Trump has the right idea to lower power prices by ‘drilling’ for natural gas.

Mrs Rinehart used her fourth video address to the National Bush Summit, which on Thursday was held in the NSW central western town of Orange, to argue that renewables or even nuclear weren’t the way to urgently rein in soaring energy costs.

Without naming him, she was even more scathing about fellow mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s failed foray into producing ‘green hydrogen’, which was scaled back drastically last month at the cost of 700 jobs.

‘If any billionaire wants to spend money on unproven, highly flammable, explosive hydrogen, let them, but this should be at their expense, not as a burden on taxpayers, and not to add to our record national debt,’ Mrs Rinehart said.

Mrs Rinehart was also scathing in her criticism of renewable energy sources, which the Albanese government and state ones are pushing as Australia’s future.  

‘It is clear that our governments have got energy policy wrong,’ Mrs Rinehart said.

‘Our bills just keep going up, demand and supply has been interfered with and our energy system is increasingly unreliable.’

‘Many warned what was happening. But our governments chose not to listen. 

‘Instead, they focused too much of their efforts and our taxpayers’ money into forcing more and more so-called ‘renewable’ energy sources into the grid, and insisting cheap and reliable coal fired power stations be shut down, while disrupting gas development.’

Mrs Rinehart said those who ‘like to claim that our country can run on sunshine and windmills’ should ‘by all means put these on your own properties if you wish’.

‘But don’t force it on us when the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, even at night time!’ Mrs Rinehart said. 

It was at this point, for the second day in a row, Mrs Rinehart’s video address did not go entirely to plan, although it might have looked scripted. 

As she said ‘the sun doesn’t always shine, even at night time’ the battery ran out on the lighting and Mrs Rinehart was plunged into darkness – becoming just a silhouette on the screen.

As she did on Wednesday, when an insistent horse kept nibbling at her jacket, Mrs Rinehart continued gamely on and the light was shortly restored.

Instead of renewables, Ms Rinehart said Australia should follow in the footsteps of her ‘pro-energy security friend’ who says ‘drill baby, drill’, a mantra used by Mr Trump who is running as the Republican nominee to regain the office he lost in 2020.  

‘We have so much natural gas in Australia, and if we are deciding not to use our vast coal deposits, let’s at least make use of our gas resources,’ Mrs Rinehart said.

Mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has drastically scaled back his ambitions to produce ‘green hydrogen’

Mrs Rinehart said we need to follow the mantra of her ‘pro-energy security friend’ US presidential candidate Donald Trump who often gets audiences chanting ‘drill, baby, drill’

‘Natural gas is needed as a feedstock for manufacturing, and processing, aside from its uses to generate electricity for homes, offices, hospitals, shopping centres, hotels, restaurants, traffic lights, schools, sporting and entertainment centres. 

‘Those who don’t want to use gas, let them choose not to use, but let those who want reliable energy, have it.’ 

While Mrs Rinehart said that although Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan to install more nuclear power involved a ‘proven’ energy source it was ‘more than a decade away’ or even two decades because of ‘government red tape and approvals’

‘Let’s develop our massive natural gas resources and bring on as much supply as we need,’ Mrs Rinehart said.

Mrs Rinehart’s iconic Aussie clothing brand Driza-Bone is one of the sponsors of the Bush Summit, which goes for six days in six different regional locations.

The regional centres hosting the summit are Townsville in Queensland, Bendigo in Victoria, Launceston in Tasmania, McLaren Vale in South Australia, Orange in NSW and Port Hedland in Western Australia.