Australia and Asia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has changed her strategy in the ongoing family court battle over control of the 1988 Hope Margaret Hancock trust.

She moved the vest date of the family trust to April 30, 2012 from 2068. With the change in the vest date, Ms Rinehart lost using her discretion when to divide the trust. Ms Rinehart initially pushed back the vest date by 57 years in September 2011 days before Ginia, the youngest was about to turn 25.

However, the development appears to be an empty victory for her three eldest children because she still decides if John, Hope and Bianca would receive any dividend by virtue of her controlling 75 per cent of Hancock Prospecting.

If the three estranged children would apply for their shares in the trust, they face multi-million dollar tax liabilities which may bankrupt them. Pricewaterhouse Coopers warned that the three face a capital gains tax liability of $150 million each with the vesting of the trust date now.

The children had requested to see the PricewaterhouseCoopers document for the past seven or eight months, but Ms Rinehart has not provided them a copy of the report.

They could also not sell their shares, estimated to be worth $5 billion, because of a condition which limits ownership of the Hancock stocks to lineal descendants of Ms Rinehart.

Despite these changes, the three insisted on continuing their court battle to remove their mother as head of the trust.

Justice Paul Brereton set the next hearing on July 13

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