Afternoon Update: Rinehart rivals to receive royalty windfall; Victoria’s political donation laws ruled unconstitution

Want to get this in your inbox every weekday? Sign up for the Afternoon Update here, and start your day with our Morning Mail newsletter. Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has lost its bid to retain royalties from the mammoth Hope Downs iron ore project and will be forced to pay Wright Prospecting half of its royalties from the project, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In a landmark ruling in the Western Australian supreme court on Wednesday, justice Jennifer Smith said that Wright Prospecting had successfully made out its contractual claim to 50% of past and future royalties paid from the Hope Downs mining complex near Newman in north-west WA. Wright Prospecting first launched legal action more than 15 years ago, arguing that the family business should share in the spoils arising from tenements that had been pegged out by prospectors Peter Wright and Gina Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, in the 1950s. But the court dismissed Wright Prospecting’s claim to ownership in other mining assets held by Hancock Prospecting. Victoria left without limits on political donations after high court rules laws unconstitutional ‘Meeting of two worlds’ as Prince Harry joins Wiggles

Apr 15, 2026 → Apr 15, 2026