As the rich get richer, the poor get the picture from a new study of global wealth

Analysis by the anti-poverty organisation revealed that the nation’s 47 billionaires made $67,000 an hour in 2024 – more than 1,300 times more than the average Australian worker.

The widening inequality gap prompted Oxfam Australia CEO Lyn Morgain to call for the federal government to introduce a wealth tax on the super-rich.

“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,” said Morgain.

Australian charities have consistently reported being inundated by demand from people – many of them asking for help for the first time – who are struggling to cope with cost-of-living pressures.

Australian data extrapolated from the Oxfam Takers not Makers report launched this week revealed that in 2024, Australian billionaire wealth increased by more than 8% or $28 billion – the equivalent of $3.2 million per hour.

The report also revealed that billionaire wealth is largely unearned, with inheritance and the impact of colonialism the two major drivers of mega-wealth accumulation.

The report found that 35% of billionaire wealth in Australia is inherited.

Oxfam said the deeply harmful and racist legacy of colonialisation had resulted in a third of First Nations peoples being among the poorest 20% of the population.

“Because billionaire wealth is often rooted in unearned privilege, much of it tied to intergenerational advantage and colonial powers, much of it goes effectively untaxed,” said Morgain.

“Meanwhile, 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.

“This is not just bad for the economy – it’s bad for humanity.”

The report, which was timed to coincide with the gathering of the world’s business elite at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos and the inauguration of US president Donald Trump, revealed that globally:

• total billionaire wealth grew by $3 trillion in 2024, the equivalent of $8.4 billion a day, a rate three times faster than the year before
  
  
• the richest 1% in the Global North extracted $46.1 million an hour through financial systems from the Global South in 2023, further increasing and entrenching deep inequality between nations
  
  
• more than five billion people currently live under the World Bank poverty line of $10.52 a day, representing 44% of humanity. Meanwhile, the world’s richest 1% own 45% of all global wealth
  
  
• the wealth of the world’s 10 richest people – all men – grew, on average, by more than $150 million a day in 2024.

The Oxfam report said that even if any of the world’s 10 richest people lost 99% of their wealth overnight, they would still wake up as billionaires.

“The capture of our global economy by a privileged few has reached heights once considered unimaginable,” said Morgain.

“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 said the “crown jewel of this oligarchy” was billionaire president Donald Trump, who runs the world’s largest economy, “backed and bought” by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart, whose personal wealth of $40 billion has secured her the title of Australia’s richest person, and packaging and recycling mogul Anthony Pratt, whose fortune is estimated at more than $15 billion, were among the guests at Trump’s inauguration in Washington this week.

Both Rinehart, who attended Trump’s election victory night celebration at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and Pratt, who donated more than $24 million to Trump’s re-election campaign, recently placed full page advertisements in New York newspapers praising the 78-year-old convicted felon and congratulating him on his return to power.

Morgain said it was clear too much power is concentrated in the hands of too few.

“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.”