Australia’s 47 billionaires take home on average $67,000 an hour, over 1300 times more than the average Australian, new Oxfam analysis reveals, as the anti-poverty organisation calls for the major parties to tax the fortunes of the super-rich to tackle rampant inequality.
Data crunching also revealed that in 2024 Australian billionaire wealth rose by more than 8% or $28 billion, at a staggering rate of $3.2 million per hour. Meanwhile, everyday Australians face another year of financial uncertainty as the cost of living crisis drags into another year.
The report also shines a light on how billionaire wealth is largely unearned. Inheritance and the historic and ongoing impacts of colonialism stand as two major drivers of billionaire wealth accumulation. In Australia, 35% of billionaire wealth is inherited, and the impacts of colonialism’s deeply harmful and divisive racist legacy can be seen here today, where a third of the First Nations peoples are in the poorest 20% of the population.
