Gina Rinehart lodges new ABC complaint over ‘$2 a day’ remark

A second ABC piece involving Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart has been removed in as many weeks, this time over an inaccurate wage claim.

First reported exclusively by News24, a fresh complaint was lodged after Victorian Socialists candidate Hera Sheppard, 18, made the comment during an appearance on ABC Radio South West Victoria on Wednesday while discussing One Nation’s rise in the polls.

“That is, in my opinion, as a result of the massive amounts of funding from billionaires like Gina Rinehart who are pushing for Australian workers to work for $2 a day,” Ms Sheppard told the program.

Host Jeremy Lee did not challenge the claim or ask Ms Sheppard to back it up.

The broadcaster took down the ABC Radio South West Victoria interview late on Friday.

In a statement published on its website, the ABC acknowledged the claim should not have gone unchallenged.

“During an interview on 12 August 2026, Victorian Socialists candidate Hera Sheppard stated without contest that Gina Rinehart was ‘pushing for Australian workers to work for two dollars a day,’” the statement read.

“This was inaccurate.

“(Ms) Rinehart’s previous comments referred to African workers being willing to work for less than $2 a day, in the context of Australia’s international competitiveness.

“An on-air correction has been issued.”

The correction follows a complaint from Hancock Prospecting, which argued the remark falsely represented comments Ms Rinehart made in 2012 about Australia’s global competitiveness.

“Business as usual will not do, not when West African competitors can offer our biggest customers an average capital cost for a tonne of iron ore that’s $100 under the price offered by an emerging producer in the Pilbara,” Ms Rinehart said at the time.

“Furthermore, 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.”

News 24 reports Hancock Prospecting’s position is that those remarks were about the pressure of competing with lower-cost overseas producers, not a call for Australian wages to be cut to that level.

The latest correction comes amid continuing tension between Ms Rinehart and the national broadcaster following the fallout over an ABC-aired short film that depicted a fictional attack on her.

The broadcaster later apologised after widespread criticism, although the ABC Ombudsman found the program did not breach editorial policies and instead fell short of community expectations.

In an earlier statement, Hancock Prospecting said it was waiting to see whether “long overdue” changes would be made to the ABC’s editorial standards.

“We wait to see the long overdue changes to the ABC’s ‘editorial standards’. Such editorial standards need to stop sexual violence and torture-until-death episodes being shown or depicted in any form against any woman on the ABC, including under the pretence of satire or art or any other cloak,” the statement said.

“Satire needs to be funny; what the ABC approved to be aired for 25 days, in its violent torture-until-death content, was not.”