Article by Nick Tabakoff courtesy of the Australian.
Gina Rinehart is spending big on advertising during the Olympic Games. No, she’s not joining fellow mining billionaire Clive Palmer in running political ads.
Instead, she’s promoting the financial commitment of her company Hancock Prospecting to Australian Olympic sport, mainly through swimming but also her sponsorships of rowing, volleyball and synchronised swimming.
For every night of the Games other than the Opening and Closing ceremonies, Rinehart is running inspirational 90-second ads in prime time at the cost of millions of dollars. She is also running the same ads on Sky News.
Among the Australian celebrities that feature in the ads are Dawn Fraser and Instagram celebrity-turned-swimmer (and ex-boyfriend of Miley Cyrus), Cody Simpson.
We’re told that privately, Rinehart’s philanthropy is doing big things for the finances of Australian swimmers.
Diary is told apart from her multimillion-dollar sponsorship of the actual sport, Rinehart is without any fanfare paying a wage to every single member of the Australian swimming team for the Olympics, and even to many who didn’t make the team.
A source close to the mining billionaire told Diary on Monday afternoon that she wants other philanthropists to follow suit in supporting Olympic sport: “Mrs Rinehart has been vocal publicly calling for more private investment, beyond her own, into Olympic sports and their athletes which would do more to support them and their medal hopes.”
The source added: “The reason why Mrs Rinehart supports these great Australians is simple, they are fantastic role models and excellent ambassadors for our country.
“Their hard work, resilience and unwavering commitment to be the very best at what they do, is admirable and aligned to values that underpin her business success.”
