Judge to appoint Rinehart family trustee A JUDGE will appoint a new head of the Rinehart family's $5 billion trust after lawyers for Australia's wealthiest person accused her two eldest children of embarking on a "kamikaze mission" to damage the entity that controls a quarter of Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd. In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Gina Rinehart's daughter Hope Welker, a plaintiff two years ago, supported the solution proposed by her mother and sister, Ginia, to control the Hope Margaret Hancock trust. Ms Welker, who pulled out of the dispute in March after separating from her husband, backed the appointment of a professional trustee company with the four children as directors. Her lawyer, Mark Deutsch, said Ms Welker "did not put herself forward as trustee" but wanted to avoid any threat to the Hope Downs iron ore joint venture with Rio Tinto. The action, commenced in September 2011, has been led by Mrs Rinehart's eldest children, John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart, and alleged their mother acted with "gross dishonesty" and a "fundamental breach of duty" in her management of the trust. Mrs Rinehart denies the claims.The decision to step down as head of the trust means Mrs Rinehart would not face cross-examination at the hearing, yet neither side of the dispute can agree on her replacement. Mr Hancock and Bianca nominated themselves as trustees, then Adelaide businessman Bruce Carter and yesterday Tony McGrath, chairman of advisory firm McGrathNicol. Lawyers representing Ginia and HPPL rejected all their nominations, arguing that they would risk the deal with Rio Tinto signed in 2006. Under the agreement, only Rinehart family members are allowed to hold shares in HPPL, partly intended to protect Rio Tinto's rivals from using its infrastructure. Representing HPPL, David Studdy SC said the attempt by Mr Hancock and Bianca to appoint an independent as a co-trustee would run "an unacceptable risk" of triggering an event that would cause Rio to claim a violation of the agreement. He described the attempt as "some sort of kamikaze mission." Representing Mr Hancock and Bianca, Christopher Withers said the children would have "no interest" in triggering such an event. Yesterday, it was revealed that it would take the children between "30 and 40 years" to sell their shares under the trust, because of the huge costs to them and the company at $2 million a share with a capital gains tax liability of $400,000 a share. Judge Paul Brereton will make the final decision on the trustee, ruling out Mr Hancock or Ginia being appointed as it would be "fraught with further difficulty." He suggested Bianca and Hope could both be appointed with an independent trustee to act as a tie breaker in the event of a dispute. Justice Brereton has asked parties to make submissions to him by Friday on their preference.