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Two dollars a day

The 2012 sentence was about African wages. The 2026 slogan put it on an Australian payslip.

Gina Rinehart was pushing for Australian workers to work for two dollars a day.

Quoted in source: “Hera Sheppard stated without contest that Gina Rinehart was “pushing for Australian workers to work for two dollars a day”. This was innaccurate.”

Hera Sheppard, Victorian Socialists, ABC Radio South West Victoria, 12 August 2026. Asked about One Nation’s rise. She named Gina Rinehart, “pushing for Australian workers to work for two dollars a day.” The presenter did not contest it. Two days later the ABC’s own corrections page called the line inaccurate and said an on-air correction had gone out.

This card files that slide. It does not file “Rinehart is a friend of the worker” and it does not file “the ABC is a conspiracy.”

What did have a receipt:

  • ABC, 5 September 2012, same masthead. Rinehart, Sydney Mining Club video: “Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day. Such statistics make me worry for this country’s future.” The lede on that page: Australians need to compete with African labour at that rate. West African iron ore, she said, was about $100 a tonne cheaper to bring on. That is a cost comparison. It is not a wage bid for Warrnambool.
  • Julia Gillard answered the same day: “It’s not the Australian way to toss people a $2 gold coin.” She heard the implication in 2012. Sheppard filed it as a current Australian policy in 2026.
  • The 2026 line also ties Rinehart’s money to One Nation’s poll rise. A donation is a donation. “$2 a day for Australian workers” is a different sentence.

Grammar: Africa, 2012, competitiveness. Logic: that is not “pay Australians two dollars.” Rhetoric: it went to air without contest. The correction arrived after the slogan.