Rare missive: Mining magnate Gina Rinehart - seen at the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast last year - has penned an essay detailing her thoughts on the state of Australia
Gina Rinehart has warned Australia is on the same track as Sri Lanka and Argentina in falling from prosperity to poverty due to a big-spending, regulation-heavy government.
The mining magnate, who is the country's richest person with a net worth of $31billion, urged Australians to be 'on guard' against the 'ruining effects of socialism' in order to preserve the nation's wealth.
She sounded the warning in a chapter she wrote for an upcoming book titled Australia Tomorrow which features essays from prominent centre-right thinkers including former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and broadcaster Alan Jones.
'For generation after generation, we have wanted to hand down a better country for our children,' she wrote in her essay obtained in advance by Daily Mail Australia.
'Sadly for this generation I believe this is now at risk, which the younger ones amongst us, in particular, should not want.'
Mrs Rinehart urged the Federal Government - which last year oversaw a record $167billion budget deficit, largely due to heavy spending to offset the crippling effect of Covid lockdowns - to show more fiscal restraint in the years to come.
'Alluring political words of ''free this'' and ''free that'', more taxpayers' money for this or that, helped to turn once prosperous Ceylon, prosperous with its tea plantations and other agriculture, into a country which couldn't support itself with food,' she wrote using the British colonial name for Sri Lanka which became independent in 1948.
'Instead, its people faced hunger, loss of free speech, consequent damaging riots, property damage, unhappiness, police and military, and a country name change as it struggled with the results of its socialist path.'
Gina Rinehart has warned Australia will become impoverished like Sri Lanka if the government doesn't rein in spending and support businesses by stripping away onerous regulations. Pictured: Residents in Colombo, Sri Lanka line up for food during a shortage this month
Mrs Rinehart, whose wealth soared by $2.2 billion in the six months to May this year due to surging iron ore prices, also cited Argentina - which was the world's tenth wealthiest nation per capita in 1913 but now suffers political instability, inflation and a 42 per cent poverty rate - as a cautionary tale of big government.
'The socialist policies of Peron and others saw incredible inflation, people unable to support their families, rioting; and the country has never regained its affluent position in the world, even 100 years later,' she wrote, referencing Juan Peron, who nationalised Argentina's large companies and set up social welfare programs when he became president in 1946.
'Sadly, the economy ruining effects of socialism don't just last between elections. They last much, much longer,' Mrs Rinehart wrote.
'We should be on guard against this and, in particular, the entitlement culture, big government, high taxes and government tape – these are problems that need to be faced, if we want Australia to continue to be the wonderful country that it has been.'
The 67-year-old Mrs Rinehart, who inherited a bankrupt mining business from her father Lang Hancock and built it up, said 'agriculture, mining, small businesses, investment and defence are the keys to our nation and our future' and urged the government to 'stop making decisions influenced by the media of the moment and instead act to make the bold decisions our country needs.'
A woman and a child walk as a man rides a bicycle along a street in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Ms Rinehart sounded the warning in a chapter she wrote for an upcoming book titled Australia
