Gina Rinehart Threatens ABC Over 'Sausage Roll' Joke on Reality Show
Australia's richest woman puts the national broadcaster 'on notice' over a crude joke aired on Race Around the World
By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
Gina Rinehart doesn't do jokes at her own expense — not on the public broadcaster's dime, anyway. The mining magnate has threatened legal action against Australia's ABC over a segment that joked about turning her insides into a sausage roll, according to The Guardian.
The offending moment came in a four-minute film titled A Very Relaxing Video, made by contestant Kate McGuinness and aired on ABC's Race Around the World on July 12. The film ended with McGuinness making the crude remark about Rinehart, and it's been sitting on the ABC's platforms since — which is precisely the problem, according to Rinehart's company.
Hancock Prospecting says its chair, Kim Williams, is among those now "on notice" for failing to pull the program down. The company's complaint isn't just about the joke landing badly; it's about the broadcaster leaving it up once flagged.
Rinehart, chair of Hancock Prospecting and long a lightning rod in Australian public life for her wealth and her outspoken politics, has a history of clashing with media over her portrayal — this dispute fits a familiar pattern, though The Guardian's report is our only source on this specific threat, and we haven't independently confirmed what legal action, if any, has actually been filed.
The ABC has not yet publicly responded to the threat as far as our sourcing shows. Whether the corporation pulls the segment, or digs in, will say a good deal about how much appetite either side has for a courtroom fight over four minutes of reality television.
If I can't source it, you won't read it here.
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian.
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