13 hours ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Gina Rinehart spends thousands evacuating media chief from Israel
Having friends (or rather bosses) in high places has never been more helpful for well-connected PR and government relations guy James Radford, who was stuck in Israel over the weekend as Iranian missiles rained down. But not stuck for long.
Radford, who runs his own Radford Consulting and is external affairs manager for Hancock Prospecting, was able to call upon his boss, mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, to get him out of Israel pronto. Others, who were part of an official delegation, were not so lucky.
It seems when Rinehart isn't keeping the Australian swim team afloat and giving out $100,000 cheques to her staff, she is saving them from war zones. Benevolent capitalism at work. And obviously, billionaire-tier travel insurance is many rungs above Budget Direct.
One estimate put the cost of the extraction at $60,000, but Radford said it could be even higher.
'Gina Rinehart was incredible – she worked day and night to try and get us out of there by whatever means possible and safe,' Radford told CBD from Melbourne.
'We definitely tried to get the entire group out, multiple Australians out – however there was no capacity in the system as this was the first day,' he said.
'My first evacuation was cancelled.'
Radford spent part of his time in the country on an official Israeli government-organised Australian Pride Mission to Israel, a two-week culture tour which was to culminate in Tel Aviv Pride. He also caught up the Australian-Israel Chamber of Commerce group, visited a kibbutz that was a site of an October 7 massacre and spent time with former Labor senator Nova Peris and media personality Erin Molan.
