A girls’ getaway is a priceless thing, but it’s wasted on Gina and Pauline

July 17, 2026 — 9:19am

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Saying it quietly in case any child or husband takes umbrage, but perhaps the most fabulous year of my life was when my BFF Pies and I went to Europe with open return tickets from the city Flight Centre.

It was 1988. Pies was 19, I was 21. We had 15 grand between us in traveller’s cheques and a copy of Frommer’s Europe on $25 a Day. Every morning we’d say, “What does Frommer think?” and if he said Madrid was good or we should try Scotland, we did.

Which is why I feel both jealous and admiring of the little girls’ getaway unfolding this week at a luxury resort in Sicily.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has taken some downtime from her UK speaking tour to hang with her benefactor, billionaire Gina Rinehart, at Taormina’s Grand Hotel San Pietro.

Yep, it’s the town where the second season of White Lotus was filmed. And yep, this time of year, standard rooms at the Grand Hotel range from $2028 to $6329. Per night. It looks stonkingly gorgeous. Like the sort of place where you’d speak in your restaurant voice and worry about having the wrong linen........

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