Barnaby Joyce confirms Gina Rinehart purchased One Nation’s new $8m headquarters

Barnaby Joyce has confirmed One Nation’s new inner-city headquarters in Brisbane are owned by billionaire Gina Rinehart.

The Australian reported yesterday that a subsidiary of Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting purchased the $8 million three-storey building in Spring Hill last week, and the party will relocate from its current home at Brisbane Airport into the first two floors after a re-fit.

Joyce today confirmed One Nation were leasing the office space from Rinehart at “commercial rates”.

“We’ve got an individual who’s got money, they should be allowed to spend it as they see it,” Joyce told News24, formerly Sky News.

“If they want to support One Nation, knock yourself out.”

He denied it created a conflict of interest.

“It’s another case of, ‘Oh, how dare that person who’s got ahead in life and made a heap of money for Australia … be allowed to (spend their money)’,” Joyce said.

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“‘They should spend it only the way we told them to spend it.’ No, they can spend it any way they like.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for Hancock Prospecting said it was not providing “free or discounted space to any outside tenant, political or otherwise”.

“Hancock Prospecting holds a range of commercial property, and this building is one of them,” the statement said.

Rinehart, who is Australia’s richest person, has emerged as a significant benefactor of the right-wing party, led by Pauline Hanson.

In April, Rinehart gifted the party a $2.1 million private plane and $2 million in cash.

A month later she made a speech voicing her support for One Nation and presented Hanson with a “beautiful, big, fat bulldozer” at a bush summit in Queensland.

In July, Hanson and Rinehart were pictured together poolside at the Sicilian Grand Hotel San Pietro made famous by hit-series White Lotus and was accused of “living it up” by Liberal leader Angus Taylor.

Hanson is enjoying rising support in Queensland, where she was the preferred prime minister over Anthony Albanese, by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, in last week’s Newspoll.

The poll revealed One Nation’s primary vote across the state is now 36 per cent.

The party’s primary vote is also surging in NSW, South Australia and Western Australia, however on a two-party preferred basis, it is still far from having what it needs to form government.