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An e-petition calling on the Cook Government to delay the introduction of WA’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act has amassed more than 29,000 signatures in a fortnight, smashing the previous WA record. The petition — which was only open to WA residents — was launched on June 6 by Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA president Tony Seabrook, pictured, and closed on Tuesday. It calls for the Act’s July 1 start date to be pushed back at least six months after backlash from farmers and Native Title groups, and amid concerns the infrastructure required to administer it is not ready. Shadow heritage minister Neil Thomson — who was due to present the document to Parliament on Wednesday — urged the Government to “take note of the massive response”.

June 2023.

HANCOCK Agriculture and S. Kidman chair Gina Rinehart and her senior pastoral management team hosted an event in a top London Mayfair restaurant yesterday, celebrating the first month of tariff-free beef trade under the new Free Trade Agreement. Yesterday’s occasion officially launched Kidman beef and two new Hancock Ag 2GR Wagyu branded products into the UK market. The three Kidman brands – 120-day grainfed, Kidman Premium and Kidman Platinum – are all EU accredited, HGP-free and Halal certified. Sister company Hancock has been selling its high-end 2GR Wagyu product into the UK for some time, but since BREXIT has been paying the full tariff on shipments.

Australia’s billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart has made a bold foray into the British beef market as the first big mover under the recently signed Australia-UK free trade deal. Mrs Rinehart launched her premium beef products – the “caviar’’ of beef – a wagyu product called 2GR, from the Hancock Agriculture company and three new top of the range meats from the S. Kidman farms, stressing to British customers the welfare of the animals, the superior quality and the detailed provenance of the meat. Mrs Rinehart told a packed audience of distributors, top chefs, butchers, high-end department stores and Australian diplomats at the swish Meat and Wine Co restaurant in Mayfair on Monday: “I was very excited to hear this is the first public, commercial get together to promote more Australian produce to England after the free trade agreement, so I am very excited we are the first.”

It was an historic day at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre on Saturday when more than 150 of Queensland’s best young swimmers made a splash – daring to dream of 2032 and representing Australia at a home Games. The occasion was Swimming Queensland’s official launch of a long-term swimmer and coach development squad partnership with Australian mining giant Hancock Prospecting. The partnership will foster the development of the next generation of Queensland, Australian and Olympic and Paralympic champions inspired by a proud history of greats who have taken their own golden path to Olympic and Paralympic glory.

Ms Rinehart said the teams at Hancock Prospecting, Roy Hill and Atlas Iron offices, as well as in the Pilbara, enjoy the multi award winning Bannister Downs Dairy products. “It’s great to be able to make available the nation’s best to our staff,” Ms Rinehart said. “Congratulations again to all at Bannister, for their great care of our cattle and for again doing so outstandingly in these awards.”

Gina Rinehart says adding a granny flat to a large backyard could be held up by contentious Indigenous heritage laws set to come into effect in Western Australia next month. Mrs Rinehart joins critics of the proposal who have described it as “shambolic” and said it would probably hold up new mines and food production. Australia’s richest person also hit out at the federal government’s plan to boost immigration, saying it had no mandate for the policy and should instead ease restrictions on the hours worked by pensioners and students.

Swimming Queensland has sealed an unprecedented multimillion dollar decade-long sponsorship deal with Hancock Prospecting to ensure it can continue to develop the sport’s best talent through to the Brisbane Olympics. The partnership, announced by Swimming Queensland chief executive Kevin Hasemann on Saturday, extends a relationship with Hancock that extends back to 2012. “A crucial, indeed critical, factor in swimming’s Tokyo 2021 triumph and earlier performances at the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games was the extremely generous financial backing of high-performance swimmers through the Hancock Prospecting Swimmer Support Scheme,” Hasemann said. “Implemented over a decade ago by Mrs. Gina Rinehart, who has been sponsoring swimming in Australia for more than 30 years, the scheme is the lifeblood of performance swimming in Australia because it enables Australia’s top swimmers to dedicate themselves fully to achieving their dreams of representing their nation at their best and with high distinction.

The modern history of the Hancocks is well known but earlier generations also had a big impact on our State’s development It is quite a picture. The striking white horses kick up dust as they work in unison to pull the coach through the WA outback. Five men sit atop the coach and a lone rider keeps pace alongside. The photo presents a fascinating reminder of how once supplies, mail and people were carried across vast stretches of WA.