Do we like them?

Do we like Andrew Forrest?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Strong on the planet and big on giving, held back by a long, costly fight with traditional owners and a thin record on people's rights.

Twiggy Forrest founded Fortescue in 2003 and turned it into a roughly $38 billion iron-ore business. He is the rare mining boss who spends his air time telling other bosses to stop burning fossil fuels, and he does it loudly.

The big stoush this year was in the Federal Court. In May it found Fortescue liable to pay the Yindjibarndi people about $150 million for cultural loss, plus roughly $100,000 for economic loss, over the Solomon Hub project. A Fortescue spokesperson said the company “accepts that the Yindjibarndi People are entitled to compensation” and would review the reasons once published. The order was against the company he founded, not Forrest personally, but it's his name on the door.

On the harm test, we found nothing from him against LGBTQ+ people, trans people, women or migrants, though honestly the record there is thin. On the planet he's the real deal: Fortescue is aiming for “Real Zero” at its Australian iron ore operations by 2030 without relying on offsets, and he wants the diesel fuel rebate scrapped because it goes to “companies that least need it”.

The catch is that the green dream has had casualties. TIME reports Fortescue cut about 700 workers in 2024 as it scaled back its hydrogen ambitions, and activists have read that as a sign his commitment isn't fully sincere. Where you land depends on whether you see it as hard-nosed business realism or a retreat.

His other recent fight is with Meta, which he is suing in the US over scam ads using his face. In August 2026 a judge ruled Meta had not taken reasonable steps to preserve evidence, including the final scam ads shown to victims. Meta says fighting scams is a top priority and that it did not create the ads, and Forrest called its conduct in the case “evasive, duplicitous and deeply revealing”.

The good stuff is real. The Forrests reportedly gave about $5 billion in Fortescue shares to their Minderoo Foundation in 2023, which has been described as the largest endowment of any Australian foundation. Add the climate campaigning and you've got a billionaire spending his money and his mouth on something bigger than himself. The Yindjibarndi ruling stops that from being a clean sweep.