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Australia’s richest have doubled their wealth during the pandemic
The wealth of Australia’s billionaires has grown to more than a quarter of a trillion dollars.
Australia’s richest have doubled their wealth during the pandemic
The wealth of Australia’s billionaires has grown to more than a quarter of a trillion dollars.
The combined wealth of Australia’s 47 billionaires doubled to $255 billion in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from Oxfam.
Released ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda meetings this week, the report found that 99 per cent of the population had suffered a decline in income while the wealth of the richest Australians grew at a rate of $2,376 per second or $205 million per day.
“The record-breaking nature of the growth in their wealth means that while many have been pushed to the brink, billionaires have had a terrific pandemic,” said Oxfam Australia chief executive Lyn Morgain.
“Central banks have pumped trillions of dollars into financial markets to save the economy, yet much of that has ended up lining the pockets of billionaires riding a stock market boom.”
According to Oxfam, the 47 billionaires in Australia now hold more wealth than the poorest 30 per cent of the population covering 7.7 million people.
The organisation also found that 160 million people worldwide had been forced into poverty since the start of the pandemic.
“Inequality at such pace and scale is happening by choice, not chance,” said Ms Morgain.
“Not only have our economic structures made us all less safe in this pandemic, they are actively enabling those who are already extremely rich and powerful to exploit this crisis for their own profit.”
Globally, the 10 richest men were found to have more than doubled their fortunes to $1.9 trillion, six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people.
If these 10 richest men lost 99.999 per cent of their wealth, Oxfam said they would still be richer than 99 per cent of the world’s population.
“Here in Australia, and globally, there is a shortage of the courage and imagination needed to break free from the failed, deadly straitjacket of broken economic systems,” said Ms Morgain.
“It’s time for the Australian government to take this issue seriously and take action to close the gap between the rich and poor.”
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