The latest move into Australia’s news industry by a billionaire highlights a lack of protections against expanding media oligarchies and their influence on democracy.

In May, reports emerged that mining magnate Gina Rinehart bankrolled former Seven West Media commercial director Bruce McWilliam’s purchase of a near-10 per cent stake in Southern Cross Media. It is understood most of the shares will revert to Hanson’s ownership if McWilliam fails to uphold his end of their agreement. 

A spokesperson for Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, declined to comment on the deal and whether Rinehart plans to influence the editorial direction of Southern Cross Media.  

But the spokesperson told PIJI recent reports that Rinehart had been rebuffed after holding discussions about buying Australian Community Media (ACM) was “fake news” and Rinehart has “zero interest in buying into ACM”. ACM declined to comment. 

Rinehart has yet to comment publicly on the motives behind her renewed attempt to get involved in Australian news.

But she would not be the first billionaire to attempt to “peddle influence” through the media, University of Melbourne professor of journalism Andrew Dodd tells PIJI.  

For example, fellow WA-based billionaire Kerry Stokes has held strong ties with the media for decades, and was chairman of Seven West Media until he stepped down in January following the merger with Southern Cross Austereo which created Southern Cross Media.  

The Stokes family remains the largest shareholder in Southern Cross Media, which now encompasses a national free-to-air TV network, several radio stations and a digital audio platform, along with print and digital news titles, many based in WA. 

“Kerry Stokes and Gina Rinehart have huge, vested interests in the mining sector and have bought into the Western Australian media,” Dodd says. 

“What better way to protect their investments than to control the discussion and the debate about things like mining taxes or taxes on gas exports?” 

Repeat attempts  

This is not Rinehart’s first foray into the news industry. 

She reportedly has sponsorship and advertising ties with News Corp and Sky News Australia, and holds shares in the US-based Fox Corp. 

Between 2010 and 2014, she was a Network Ten board member. In 2010, News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt – a reported favourite of Rinehart who was given a half-hour show on the network during her tenure – wrote that the billionaire was “on a mission” and hinted she would pursue a pro-mining line. 

In 2012, Rinehart became the largest shareholder in Fairfax, but she sold her shares in 2015 after reportedly failing to gain enough influence. 

It was widely reported she was unable to obtain a seat on Fairfax’s board after refusing to sign the company’s charter of editorial independence, but former Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett told the Australian Financial Review it was because she refused to settle for a single seat.  

However, he does not expect her to be a passive shareholder in Southern Cross Media. 

“I think it would be extremely difficult for Mrs Rinehart and maybe anyone else of Mrs Rinehart’s wealth to have a significant shareholding in a media company without expressing her views on how that media organisation should report the news,” Corbett told the Australian Financial Review. 

Playing politics 

Aside from her mining interests, the last few months have seen Rinehart highlight her support of the political far-right, including US President Donald Trump and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.  

Rinehart has praised Trump’s policies, and her spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald that there “are very few Australians with the depth of relationships Mrs Rinehart has with the Trump administration.”

Her increasing support of One Nation, a party enjoying a recent surge in popularity, has included millions in donations from the billionaire’s friends and a gifted private plane; Hanson has also been open about receiving policy advice from Rinehart. 

Dodd views the current editorial lean of Southern Cross Media as centre-right and expects Rinehart will push for a further right-wing approach. 

“It looks like on the surface that she’s trying to create something that’s much more radically conservative than it currently is, and I think that’s a danger to Australian democracy, because it’s not where the Australian populace are,” he says. 

“We’re lucky to have a body politics in Australia that is very centrist, and so when Gina Rinehart comes along with large amounts of money, she runs the risk of destabilising that, to the country’s detriment.” 

Derek Wilding, co-director of the Centre for Media Transition at University of Technology Sydney, tells PIJI governments have long been susceptible to political campaigns by influential media organisations.  

Aside from Stokes, notable billionaires who have exerted pressure on publishers’ editorial direction include the Murdoch family, who own News Corp – the influence of which sparked a failed campaign for a royal commission – and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who blocked the Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential race. 

Wilding says ownership and control rules were designed to protect Australia’s democratic processes by encouraging a range of voices in the media and ensuring one person could not achieve an “inappropriate” level of influence. 

But these rules were largely rolled back by the government over the last two decades, resulting in Australia having one of the world’s most concentrated media ownership landscapes.  

The effectiveness of the “minimal” remaining rules is “questionable”, Wilding says. 

“What we’re seeing with Gina Rinehart isn’t necessarily a problem at the moment, but if she builds up significant media interests, there is the potential for a problem.”

Wilding says Rinehart’s decision to finance McWilliam’s purchase of shares is not an unusual way of holding media interests, although it was more common when there were stricter rules about cross-media and foreign ownership. 

“Convertible notes and debentures have been used in the past,” he explains. 

“They give the person a financial investment that doesn’t amount to company interests that would constitute control under the Broadcasting Services Act, provided there’s some contingency or condition precedent that needs to be satisfied, and that hasn’t yet taken place.  

“The most well-known example is where CanWest had an interest in the Ten Network via the use of debentures.” 

To create more buffers against potential undue influence in Australian media, he says measures should include the protection of the diversity the industry has retained, along with the redirection of digital platform revenue to news publishers through the News Media Bargaining Code. 

Dodd says the ABC and SBS are “bulwarks” against Australia’s increasing media ownership concentration and should be protected to continue that function. 

Southern Cross Media was contacted for comment. 

– Sezen Bakan