Rio Tinto 'should move HQ to Australia' Ms Reinhart, the richest woman in the world and Australia's wealthiest person, said that the appointment of Australian Sam Walsh as chief executive last week presented the ideal opportunity to make the move. Mr Walsh's predecessor, Tom Albanese, stepped down after the miner was forced to write down assets worth $14bn (£9bn). "In congratulating Sam on his promotion to such an important position within Rio Tinto, we have urged him to take this opportunity and also move the Rio Tinto headquarters from London to Perth where given most of Rio Tinto's revenue is generated in Australia, it logically belongs," Mrs Rinehart said. We also hope other Australians will join our call that now that there is an Australian CEO for Rio Tinto, and given the history of mainly success for Rio Tinto's projects in Australia, a renewed emphasis will be undertaken by Rio Tinto to reinvest more of the profits it earns in Australia. " (That will) benefit ... its shareholders who have seen much diminution in value via investments in risky countries, and for the benefit of Australia, which given its increasing debts, greatly needs," she said. Ms Rinehart is head of Hancock Prospecting, a private company that was established by her father and is Rio's partner in the massive Hopes Downs iron ore project in Western Australia. Most of Hancock's revenues come from the partnership with Rio. "We hope Rio Tinto and Sam will lose no time in advising the Australian government in clear and straightforward terms, what it would wish to make the decisions to increase its investment in Australia," Ms Rinehart added. No uncompetitive carbon tax springs to mind as one example to help interest in investment and reduce the increasing problem and very great concern of Australia's diminishing cost competitiveness. Ms Rinehart, worth an estimated £19bn, is no stranger to controversy. In August she rebuked her poorer Australian countrymen, calling them "jealous" and telling them to work harder and cut down their drinking, smoking and socialising.