Australia's richest woman pledges $139 million to combat veteran homelessness

Australian mining billionaire Gina Rinehart is putting A$200 million ($139 million) into housing homeless veterans, a gift her company says is the largest private commitment to former service members in Australia.

The money has so far bought six apartment blocks. Rinehart opened the latest complex in Brisbane on Oct. 12 and used the occasion to accuse the federal government of selling off military barracks that could shelter former soldiers.

Rinehart, executive chairman of Hancock Prospecting Pty. and Australia's richest woman, opened the Daniel Keighran VC Apartments in the riverside suburb of Norman Park. The complex is named after a Queensland-born soldier who received the Victoria Cross for Australia for his actions on patrol in Derapet, Afghanistan, in August 2010, while serving with the Brisbane-based 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment. Keighran, who still lives in Brisbane, attended the opening.

"Stable secure housing is the basic foundation needed to help turn homeless veterans' lives around," Rinehart said.

Norman Park is the first of four Brisbane apartment complexes Hancock Prospecting has bought and refurbished for veterans. Two of the other three are already full, and the third is due to take residents next month. Veterans Housing Australia will run the sites with the Salvation Army.

"Mrs Rinehart has provided more than a roof over someone's head," Keighran said.

A$200 million pledge

Rinehart announced the commitment on April 23, two days before Anzac Day, saying Hancock Prospecting would buy hotels, motels and apartment blocks and turn them into homes for veterans with nowhere to live.

"I was shocked to learn recently that more than 6000 veterans are homeless. This is unacceptable," she said at the time.

Research by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute found that about 5,800 veterans experienced homelessness over a 12-month period. Jonathan Dyer of the Salvation Army said veterans and their families are nearly three times more likely to become homeless than the general population.

The company opened two complexes in Perth earlier this year, in the beachside suburb of Scarborough in June and in South Perth in July. Those followed Sir Valston Hancock House, a A$10 million ($6.9 million) complex in South Perth named after Air Marshal Sir Valston Hancock, a former chief of the Royal Australian Air Force. It opened in September 2024 with the Royal Australian Air Force Association, filled within three months and has provided more than 3,500 nights of accommodation.

Rob Miller, chief executive of Veterans Housing Australia, said no project "has ever been undertaken on such a scale in Australia." The homes follow a "Housing First" approach, which puts people into stable accommodation before dealing with other problems.

Barracks and pensions

Rinehart said at the Brisbane opening that her money alone was not enough. She accused the federal government of focusing on selling unused or barely used defence barracks, some of historical value, to fund spending, instead of opening them to homeless veterans. In April she had called on Canberra to open sites such as Leeuwin and Irwin barracks in Western Australia.

She also took aim at rules that cut veterans' pensions when they earn more than a small amount from work. She called the policy "uncaring" and "expensive," saying it stops veterans from saving for a home or paying rent, and argued that letting veterans and pensioners work more would help ease Australia's labour shortages. She said veterans' earnings should be taxed like everyone else's.

Rinehart, 72, inherited Hancock Prospecting from her father, Lang Hancock, in 1992 and built it into one of Australia's biggest private companies through the Roy Hill iron ore mine and its stake in Hope Downs in the Pilbara. Its Hancock Iron Ore unit runs a veterans employment program with peer support and chaplaincy, and funds a military scholarship at Bond University on the Gold Coast.