Oxfam: Australian billionaires’ wealth rose by almost $600,000 a day on average

Australian billionaires increased their wealth by almost $600,000 a day on average over the past year, or more than $10.5bn collectively, new analysis by Oxfam shows, the anti-poverty organisation said in a report released on Monday. Oxfam used the findings to call for an end to negative gearing and capital gains discounts, concessions now being examined in a federal inquiry.

The report said eight new Australian billionaires have been added since 2020, bringing the total to 48, and that together they hold more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population — about 11 million people. Oxfam said the average annual wealth increase of one Australian billionaire was equivalent to the annual income of more than 2,000 Australians earning the average wage, drawing on data from Forbes’ real-time billionaires list, the World Inequality database and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Jennifer Tierney, chief executive of Oxfam Australia, said the wealth of billionaires globally was "growing at an unprecedented speed, three times faster than we’ve seen it grow in the past" and that the situation reflected tax systems that favour the wealthy. "What we’re seeing is tax systems that work for the wealthy and tax systems that are not working to actually fill the government coffers with money that could provide support for things like housing, or childcare support," she said.

Key Topics

Politics, Australian Billionaires, Australia, Oxfam Australia, Capital Gains Discount, Negative Gearing