The Populist

Around the globe, rightwing politicians pushing nationalist and anti-immigration policies are on the rise. The Populist explores the growing appeal of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – a party that has imported the modus operandi of the populist right, including Trump-style attacks on the media. In a new four-part podcast series, investigations correspondent Sarah Martin asks who One Nation really stands for and whether the party has what it takes to achieve power in Australia

In this bonus episode of the Walkley-nominated series about Australia’s richest person, Guardian Australia senior correspondent Sarah Martin and producer Joe Koning examine Wednesday’s landmark court ruling that ends a 15-year-court battle between Gina Rinehart and rival heirs

At 13 years old, a young Gina Rinehart read a book that would help shape her world view – Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. The novel’s capitalist underpinnings promote the idea that people should strive to be their best industrial selves. In this episode, we explore how these values are playing out in Rinehart’s life today, including her proposal to build a coalmine in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. And we hear how author and environmental campaigner Tim Winton views her efforts to prevent an overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws

Gina Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, is well known as a pioneer of the iron ore industry in Australia but few realise he started his mining career on a smaller scale and digging for a different substance – blue asbestos. Hancock and his partner started the mining operation at Wittenoom in the 1940s before selling it to another company, CSR, which mined the area for 20 more years. Wittenoom has become synonymous with an immense tragedy that unfolded upon thousands of the people who lived and worked there due to exposure to asbestos fibres. In this episode of Gina, we interrogate some of the stories her family chooses to celebrate – and others they don’t

In the last episode, we covered historical claims made over the years that Lang Hancock, Gina’s father, had two unacknowledged daughters with separate Indigenous women. Since then, the daughter of Sella Robinson, one of the Indigenous women who claimed to be Hancock’s daughter, has decided to speak publicly for the first time