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The wealth of Australia’s billionaires grew by almost $50,000 a minute in 2025, Oxfam analysis reveals.
Scrutinising the Australian Financial Review’s annual rich list, published last week, Oxfam Australia analysis shows the 20 richest Australians hold more wealth than the bottom three million households.
“There is something fundamentally wrong with a system where extreme wealth keeps skyrocketing while so many people are struggling to afford the basics, and governments claim there is not enough money for housing, healthcare, climate action and essential services,” Oxfam Australia chief executive Jennifer Tierney said.
The changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing were “modest” but “important steps towards a fairer tax system”, Ms Tierney said.
“While misinformation and misplaced fears about small business and aspiration continue to dominate debate around these reforms, the reality is that the wealth of the super-rich continues to grow while poverty persists.
“Australia should not continue rewarding wealth accumulation more generously than work, particularly at a time when so many households are under pressure.”
The AFR’s annual rich list shows the gulf between Australia’s have and have-nots continues to widen. The wealth of Australia’s richest 200 people that the AFR is able to identify or estimate now equals $707.25bn, up from $667.8bn the year before.
For billionaires specifically, as a collective their wealth increased by a figure equivalent to $48,973-a-minute across the year.
Gina Rinehart topped the list for the seventh year in a row. The mining colossus’ fortune grew an estimated 2 per cent over the past year to $39.01bn, the AFR estimates.
Property magnate Harry Triguboff’s empire spurred a 9 per cent growth in his wealth to $32.28bn.
Packaging tycoon Anthony Pratt and his family lost 3 per cent of their fortune to come in at third on the rich list
The fortune of South African-born, Swiss resident and Australian citizen Ivan Glasenberg shot up 68 per cent to $22.4bn, while Clive Palmer’s wealth shrunk 3 per cent to rank fifth.
There are now 178 Australian billionaires according to the AFR list. Seventeen people have joined that exclusive bracket over the past year. Their collective wealth grew by $25.67bn in that time.
By Oxfam’s calculations, that one-year growth could cover the grocery bills of three million households for a year, lift one million Australians out of poverty, and pay a year of power bills for every single house in the country.
“As ordinary Australians continue to feel pressure at the checkout, at the petrol pump and when paying rent or mortgages, billionaire wealth is continuing to surge,” Ms Tierney said.
“A fairer approach to taxing extreme wealth would help ensure governments can properly invest in affordable housing, healthcare, climate action and support for communities doing it tough here and abroad.”
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