Gina Rinehart is not just the richest person in Australian history, she is fast becoming one of the richest people in the world. The daughter of Lang Hancock, legendary arch-conservative, secessionist, mining millionaire and discoverer of the world's largest iron ore deposit in the Pilbara, Gina has grown up in a family known as much for its front-page legal stoushes as for its business acumen and toughness. With her reported wealth more than doubling in the last twelve months, Rinehart is beginning to flex the enormous power her money gives, buying larger sharesholdings in television's Ten Network and newspaper group Fairfax Media.