If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at who he gives it to.

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain; do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socialising, and more time working" says Gina Rinehart, who is now richer than many poor countries thanks to the fortune that got handed to her.

As a working Australian, her comments make me seethe.

Granted, cutting back on drinking and smoking is never bad advice, but telling us to work more and have less relaxation time is pure insolence. This woman is sitting on a throne of mostly unearned fortune and thinks she has the right to lecture us about working more. Would you take relationship advice from someone who has been single for almost all their life? No.

And let's not forget this is coming from someone who earns $2 million per hour, yet doesn't even give to charity. 

Gina talks about having our best interests at heart, yet somehow also thinks that lowering the minimum wage and cutting taxes is a good idea. She talks about wanting to help increase our wealth, yet is simultaneously giving coal-mining jobs to foreign workers. To save money.

Although her comments were made in her regular column in a mining industry magazine and could possibly have only been directed at that audience, a person with such a public profile can't make statements as such and expect them to remain only in the targeted sphere.

This is a good thing for a democratic society, as we choose our leaders and the more information we know about people, the better equipped we are to make good decisions regarding who we choose to follow.

In closing, one internet commenter ('Horus') speaks for the majority: 'Gina's completely correct... if you want to be successful you should get up every morning, be prepared to work hard every day, and inherit a mining company.'