Gina Rinehart’s son says he wants to be a ‘united family’ in olive branch to mother after court ruling
Gina Rinehart’s son has said he wants to reunite his family after a landmark court case left a long-running feud over ownership of mines and companies unresolved.The Western Australian supreme court on Wednesday found Rinehart’s children were at one point set to inherit 49% of her company and said their ownership claims should be determined in separate proceedings.The broader judgment found Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, retained ownership of the mammoth Hope Downs iron ore project, defeating competing claims from her children and Wright Prospecting.John Hancock, who has been embroiled in a two-decade feud with his mother, offered an olive branch while claiming partial victory in a statement on Wednesday following the ruling.“Rather than continuing disagreements about the validity of Agreements from the 1980s, perceptions of events from decades ago or the pain this conflict has caused all parties over the years, I would much prefer to focus on the positive, and find a fair and reasonable way forward for the whole family,” he said.
“My primary focus for the next 21 days is an attempt at that reunification, and a return to the close family we had at various times in the last 50 years of my life.“I hope we can finally put these events from decades ago behind us, and as a united family, celebrate and continue the contribution we have made to Australia.”The family has fought for ownership of mines and companies now controlled by Gina Rinehart but set up by Lang Hancock, who is Rinehart’s father and John Hancock’s grandfather.John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart have claimed their grandfather wanted his grandchildren to have a greater stake.Wednesday’s judgment found Gina Rinehart’s father had behaved fraudulently regarding the Hope Downs mine, voiding her children’s claimed ownership stake.
Justice Jennifer Smith found some of Lang Hancock’s actions were “principally to avoid Gina Rinehart’s scrutiny” and were “clear and serious transgressions of ordinary standards of honest behaviour of a director, so as to amount to a dishonest and fraudulent design”.“Lang Hancock treated [some companies] as if they were mere extensions of himself; his corporate vehicles with which he could do what he liked and extract whatever financial benefit he liked without regard to the best interests of [Hancock Prospecting],” Smith found.John Hancock said the findings against his grandfather were “a difficult pill to swallow”.“I know he was not perfect but for more than three decades, I have defended his legacy where appropriate – there is nobody left to do so,” he said.Jay Newby, Gina Rinehart’s right-hand man and executive director of Hancock Prospecting, declared victory against Rinehart’s children when the judgment was delivered.
“Over approximately four decades, John, Bianca [and companies Wright Prospecting and DFD Rhodes] took no risk and made no meaningful contribution to developing the Hope Downs and East Angelas iron ore mines and infrastructure,” Newby said,Newby also claimed the court had not accepted what he described as “John and Bianca’s abusive claims of serious wrongdoing during the trial against Mrs Rinehart”,The children have alleged Gina Rinehart had fraudulently rearranged the company’s affairs after Lang Hancock’s death, which Hancock Prospecting has denied,Smith did not make a ruling, finding the children’s claims were irrelevant to the Hope Downs case and should be determined in an ongoing private arbitration,However, she did determine a plan agreed by Gina Rinehart and her father in 1988 would have left 51% of the company’s shares to Rinehart and the other 49% to her children.
Rinehart now controls 76.55% of the company and the children control 23.45%.In his statement, John Hancock welcomed Smith’s findings.“What we did receive from Her Honour were findings and remarks which are in line with my initial approach to my mother Gina over two decades ago … and consistent with our case,” he said.
“Her Honour’s comments as above indicate that the June [1988] Agreement is binding, [a disputed] trust existed and reiterated the 49/51 split, and Gina Rinehart was appointed trustee with the duty to preserve its assets.” This article was amended on 15 April 2026.Jay Newby is the executive director of Hancock Prospecting, not the CEO as an earlier version said.
Quakers among charities warning new regulator powers could stifle advocacy
Several leading civil society organisations have urged the government to consult the sector before introducing new powers for the Charity Commission, which they caution risks “suppressing legitimate advocacy” at a time when civic space is under increased pressure.Signatories, including leaders from some of the UK’s largest civil society bodies, alongside faith-based and community organisations, wrote to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, saying the proposed social cohesion measures could lead to the “suppression of lawful advocacy, campaigning and community engagement”.The letter, which was signed by leaders from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Muslim Charities Forum, Quakers in Britain and Oxfam, among others, cautions against a government proposal to introduce broader grounds on which organisations could be reported for extremism.“In the absence of clear safeguards and well-defined thresholds, the proposed expansion of the Charity Commission’s powers to remove trustees and close organisations, could be applied in ways that mischaracterise legitimate civil society activity,” the letter said.“This, in turn, may contribute to the suppression of lawful advocacy, campaigning, and community engagement, particularly for organisations working on sensitive or contested issues, including those led by or representing diverse communities
Prison officers given more training to avoid being manipulated into illicit relationships with inmates
A new programme of instruction and support will be given to trainee prison officers to help them avoid being manipulated into illicit relationships by experienced criminals.The Prison Service in England and Wales is developing the scheme, which will offer mentors and advice to trainee officers on how to handle complex relationships with prisoners.It comes as statistics show that prison officers are more likely to be younger and have less experience than a decade ago. It also follows the prosecution of more than a dozen former prison officers after becoming involved in financial and sexual relationships with inmates.They include Alicia Novas, 20, who was jailed for three years after working at HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough where she became involved with Declan Winkless, 31, and smuggled cannabis into prison
Streeting relaunches women’s health strategy to tackle ‘medical misogyny’
Wes Streeting has vowed to stop women being “gaslit” by doctors as he relaunches the women’s health strategy for England.Speaking before the publication of the renewed strategy on Wednesday, Streeting said the NHS was “failing women” and set out measures to help them access the healthcare they need.The government said the strategy would include a new standard of care to ensure women were offered pain relief for invasive procedures, such as fitting a contraceptive coil and hysteroscopies.Feedback would be directly linked to provider funding via a new trial, giving women more power to effect change if they have a poor experience.Action would also be taken to ensure women no longer face long waits for diagnoses for conditions such as endometriosis, which can take a decade to diagnose
EHRC updates guidance on how to apply supreme court ruling on gender
The equalities watchdog has updated its guidance on how to implement the supreme court ruling on gender after the government requested changes to the original proposals submitted last year.In a statement, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that after feedback from the government, as well as consultation responses and extra legal advice, it had made changes to what is officially known as the code of practice.It follows concern from a number of MPs and groups representing transgender people that the original code, sent to ministers in September under the EHRC’s then chair, Kishwer Falkner, created a legal minefield for organisations implementing it and risked in effect excluding transgender people from much of the public realm.The code sets out how businesses and other organisations should respond in practical terms to the supreme court ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers only to biological sex.A government source said the changes did not mean the guidance was being weakened and that they would provide maximum clarity on how organisations could provide services in practice
‘Little progress’ in stopping drug drones at HMP Manchester, watchdog says
The Prison Service has made “very little progress” in enforcing a formal demand to stop drones from delivering drugs into one of its worst performing jails, a watchdog has concluded.Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons for England and Wales, said HMP Manchester remained in a “precarious state” after a failure to fix broken windows and install security to stop contraband being delivered to gangs.Taylor issued an urgent notification in October 2024 demanding that the Ministry of Justice intervene within 28 days to stop escalating drug use and violence at the high-security prison.The disclosures, in a report released on Tuesday, have provoked concern among penal reformers that ministers are failing to stop drugs being delivered into the 123 prisons across England and Wales.The government has dedicated £10m across the entire estate to anti-drone measures
Almost 2bn to be affected by metabolic liver disease by 2050, study suggests
Metabolic liver disease will affect 1.8 billion people worldwide by 2050, driven by rising obesity and blood sugar levels, a study suggests.Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is one of the most prevalent and rapidly growing liver conditions globally, according to the research.There are now 1.3 billion people worldwide living with MASLD, the latest estimates suggest, a 143% increase in just three decades
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