Australian billionaires made $67,000 every hour – a lazy 1300 times what the average person takes home – while the world’s 10 richest people added $150 million to their wealth each day in 2024.
That’s according to a new Oxfam report which has laid bare the differing fortunes of the world’s wealthiest and poorest people.
The report,Takers Not Makers, found that Australia’s 47 billionaires increased their wealth by a combined $28 billion last year, at a collective rate of $3.2 million per hour.
Meanwhile, it also found Indigenous Australians are languishing behind the rest of the nation, with an average First Nations person earning just 72 per cent of their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Oxfam said the figures showed the need for new tax policies directed at the country’s richest people.
“Money desperately needed in Australia and abroad to tackle social issues such as access to housing and to respond to worsening humanitarian emergencies, is being siphoned off to the bank accounts of the super-rich,” Oxfam Australia chief executive Lyn Morgain said.
“This is not just bad for the economy – it’s bad for humanity.
“As the federal election looms, it’s critical that our political leaders take bold steps to ensure the super-rich pay their fair share of taxes, so we can fund essential services like healthcare, education, and climate action – and build a fairer society for all.”
It has also called for a “permanent crisis profits tax” on large businesses so they can’t “profiteer as they did during the pandemic” during national disasters and other crises.
Globally, the report found billionaires increased their combined wealth by $3 trillion over the course of 2024 – a rate three times faster than the year before.
Four new billionaires were minted every week, and each billionaire added an average of $3 million to their fortunes each day.
At the same time, the report found 5 billion people across the world – some 44 per cent of the global population – are living in poverty, with less than $10.52 per day to their names.
The top ten richest Australians in 2024
“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable,” Morgain said.
“The shameful failure to stop billionaires hoarding their wealth will soon result in the spawning of trillionaires.
“Not only has the rate of billionaire wealth accumulation accelerated – by three times in the past year alone – but so too has their power.”
Morgain pointed to Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who, with a fortune of somewhere between $US430 and $US450 billion ($690-$725 billion), is in prime position to become the world’s first trillionaire, as the prime example of a billionaire’s power increasing due to his position in Donald Trump’s inner circle.
“The crown jewel of this oligarchy is a billionaire president, backed and bought by the world’s richest man Elon Musk, running the world’s largest economy,” she said.
“We present this report as a stark wake-up call that the futures of the vast majority of the global population are being crushed by the enormous wealth of a tiny few.”
“I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern,” he said.
“And this is a dangerous concern. And that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people…
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
