Gina Rinehart

“I think when you grow up - cement floors, tin roofs, having to amuse yourselves... you know, the importance of work - I think these are benefits that I've had.”

“Access to water is an animal welfare issue, yet, unfortunately, governments still make it difficult and costly to obtain water licences and approvals to build and develop new water points.”

“They say that if you give your children too much, they don't get the joy out of work. They just want the unearned things to keep falling from the sky.”

“Just in any job, if you want to get ahead, take shorter lunch breaks, be happy to stay later, do the work, and finish it off well.”

“To be able to take the next generation, my daughters and my granddaughters, to better understand and respect the people in the Outback and experience the wonders of our country, would definitely be one of my favourite duties.”

“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain - do something to make more money yourself.”

“People who knew Dad used to say at times I was brought up as the son Dad never had.”

“The raw materials that Australia has in abundance will always be critical to world growth.”

“Roy Hill had to achieve more than 4,000 approvals, permits, and licences and more again for construction. The delays and costs of this were not only humungous and waste of human resources but did nothing to assist productivity.”

“In the U.S. there are many people willing to work on $9 per hour, which is causing Tasmania to lose its famous apple industry and Australia to import more and more of its fruit and food from lower cost countries. In fact, all over Australia there are warning signs of us killing or restricting our own industries.”

“If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvestment and businesses welcome.”

“The land and agricultural industry is the backbone of Australia, and we need to foster the industry that provides our country with so much.”

“The millionaires and billionaires who chose to invest in Australia are actually those who most help the poor and our young. This secret needs to be spread widely.”

“The media these days are not so much interested in saying things truthfully without distortion, without misrepresentation, without ridicule.”

“The Territory has more than 200 trillion cubic feet of gas: potentially enough gas to power Australia for more than 200 years.”

“I have never met a geologist or leading scientist who believes adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere will have any significant effect on climate change.”

“We were pretty cash-strapped for all those years when I took over.”

“The evidence is inarguable that Australia is becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export-oriented business. Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day. Such statistics make me worry for this country's future. We are becoming a high-cost and high-risk nation for investment.”

“If a special economic zone worked as I do believe it would in the North, then hopefully we could extend it further south. It could certainly have benefits for an even wider area of Australia.”

“The business was in a very difficult state when I first took over the company. I walked into a situation where cheques were getting written, popped in drawers, so that when people phoned up, they could honestly say, 'Look, we've signed the cheque. You'll get it ultimately.'”