{"id":907814,"date":"2026-09-27T21:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T21:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907814\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T21:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T21:42:13","slug":"gina-rinehart-allegedly-tried-to-help-recruit-liberal-mp-henry-pike-to-join-one-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/907814\/","title":{"rendered":"Gina Rinehart allegedly tried to help recruit Liberal MP Henry Pike to join One Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

One Nation’s billionaire backer Gina Rinehart allegedly attempted to help recruit a sitting federal Liberal MP after he was invited for lunch at one of her holiday homes.<\/p>\n

Henry Pike represents the seat of Bowman for Queensland’s Liberal National Party and has previously held fundraisers hosted by Mrs Rinehart.<\/p>\n

In January, he arrived at the mining magnate’s $34 million Sunshine Coast beach house to find One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, her then chief-of-staff James Ashby and federal MP Barnaby Joyce were staying there.<\/p>\n

Coalition sources have told Four Corners that during the lunch, Mrs Rinehart asked Mr Pike if he was thinking of joining One Nation or would ever consider it.<\/p>\n

The LNP member saw it as an active attempt by the billionaire to recruit him to the party.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Liberal National MP Henry Pike says he will not quit his party.\u00a0 (ABC News: Nick Haggarty)<\/p>\n

Mr Pike declined to be interviewed by Four Corners.<\/p>\n

In a statement, he said: “I have enormous respect for Mrs Rinehart and all she has achieved.<\/p>\n

“But I am, and always will be, a Liberal.<\/p>\n

“I believe in the Liberal Party, in our leadership, in our values that shaped modern Australia, and in our ability to do it all again.<\/p>\n

“Australia’s future is too important for political opportunism.”<\/p>\n

Mrs Rinehart did not respond to Four Corners’ questions about whether she tried to help recruit Mr Pike or other Coalition MPs to One Nation.<\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Henry Pike (right), with colleague Andrew Hastie, says he believes in the Liberal Party.\u00a0 (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

Coalition questions One Nation donations<\/p>\n

Mrs Rinehart is Australia’s richest person, with a recent estimated fortune of about $39 billion.<\/p>\n

Her support for One Nation has coincided with the party’s transformation into a third force in Australian politics, raising questions about her influence.<\/p>\n

She has praised Senator Hanson and her policies, while also hosting fundraisers and providing advice to the party.<\/p>\n

In an interview with ABC Radio in Perth, Senator Hanson said she had consulted with Mrs Rinehart over various policies.<\/p>\n

“My policy on pensioners being able to work unlimited hours and without losing their pension or their health care card came from Mrs Rinehart,” she said.<\/p>\n

In April, it was announced Mrs Rinehart had gifted a plane worth more than $1.5 million to One Nation, while two of her executives \u2014 the former NT chief minister Adam Giles and Ian Plimer \u2014 each gave the party $500,000.<\/p>\n

Mr Giles also donated a Ford Ranger ute in April.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Adam Giles and Pauline Hanson promoted the One Nation-branded vehicle on social media.\u00a0 (Supplied: Facebook)<\/p>\n

The largest single donation Professor Plimer had previously disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) was $50,000 to the National Party in 2013-14.<\/p>\n

AEC records show Mr Giles had not disclosed a donation to a federal political party before under his own name, but his company Adgile Investments had donated $25,000 to the Nationals in 2024 and $27,000 to One Nation in 2025.<\/p>\n

The pair’s recent $500,000 donations have not yet been published by the AEC, which will publish donation data later in the year.<\/p>\n

Four Corners can reveal the Coalition has written to the Albanese government asking if it had concerns about whether Mr Giles and Professor Plimer made the donations on behalf of a third party and whether they would be investigated.<\/p>\n

Garth Hamilton, the LNP member for Groom, told Four Corners the donations deserved further scrutiny.<\/p>\n

“Those are big donations. I think if you ask that question at the pub, a lot of people would have questions about that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Whether it’s donations from groups like Climate 200 or whether it’s the influence of other businesspeople, there’s scrutiny that should always be applied. These ones stand out.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Gina Rinehart did not respond to questions about the donations.\u00a0 (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n

In a statement, the AEC said there had been no official inquiries made into these donations.<\/p>\n

“Any donors who have donated for a federal purpose are required to lodge their annual disclosure return for the 2025-26 financial year by 17 November 2026, at which point the AEC considers the information received,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Mrs Rinehart did not respond to questions about the donations.<\/p>\n

Mr Giles, the chief executive of Hancock Agriculture, said it was his decision to donate.<\/p>\n

“I, like many Australians, [am] very worried,” he said in a statement to Four Corners.<\/p>\n

“I am worried for my country, my state, my industry and my family.<\/p>\n

“If I want to make donations, I will.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Nation’s billionaire backer Gina Rinehart allegedly attempted to help recruit a sitting federal Liberal MP after he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[308745,64,63,51326,68825,27305,44023,69,60501,8855,475991,308749,380706,1788,44,60504,14754],"class_list":["post-907814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adam-giles","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-electoral-commission","tag-barnaby-joyce","tag-coalition","tag-donations","tag-federal-government","tag-gina-rinehart","tag-hancock","tag-henry-pike","tag-ian-plimer","tag-james-ashby","tag-labor","tag-news","tag-one-nation","tag-pauline-hanson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}