ABC News, 20 January 2024:
Two hundred and four billionaires were created, an average of almost four a week [in 2024].
The five richest people last year, according to Forbes, were:
1. Elon Musk
2. Jeff Bezos
3. Bernard Arnault and family
4. Larry Ellison
5. Mark Zuckerberg
"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," said Oxfam Australia chief executive Lyn Morgain.
Australia's 47 billionaires make an average $67,000 an hour, according to the report — a figure 1,300 times higher than that of the average Australian worker.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart remains Australia's richest, and the world's 56th richest, person, with a net worth of $47.3 billion.
Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest is Australia's second richest, worth $29.2 billion and real estate developer Harry Triguboff is third, worth $25.3 billion.
The report finds that last year Australia's total billionaire wealth increased by more than 8 per cent, or $28 billion, at a rate of $3.2 million per hour.
Oxfam Australia's Ms Morgain notes the "rampant growth" of billionaires' wealth in Australia "was the legacy of colonisation", with 35 per cent of billionaire wealth inherited.....
Oxfam Australia's Ms Morgain notes the "rampant growth" of billionaires' wealth in Australia "was the legacy of colonisation", with 35 per cent of billionaire wealth inherited.....
"There is a relationship between this concentration of wealth and extractive industries in Australia. There's a particular historical context to this in Australia and it's that all our billionaires dug their wealth out of the ground," she says.
OXFAM, Takers not Makers: The unjust poverty and unearned wealth from colonialism, 16 January 2025:
Billionaire wealth has risen three times faster in 2024 than 2023. Five trillionaires are now expected within a decade. Meanwhile, crises of economy, climate and conflict mean the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990.
Most billionaire wealth is taken, not earned - 60% comes from either inheritance, cronyism and corruption or monopoly power. Our deeply unequal world has a long history of colonial domination which has largely benefited the richest people. The poorest, racialized people, women and marginalized groups have and continue to be systematically exploited at huge human cost. Today’s world remains colonial in many ways. The average Belgian has 180 times more voting power in the World Bank than the average Ethiopian. This system still extracts wealth from the Global South to the superrich 1% in the Global North at a rate of US$30million an hour. This must be reversed. Reparations must be made to those who were brutally enslaved and colonised. Our modern-day colonial economic system must be made radically more equal to end poverty. The cost should be borne by the richest people who benefit the most....
A TWO TIER WORLD: THE FACTS
In 2024, total billionaire wealth increased by US$2 trillion, with 204 new billionaires created. This is an average of almost four new billionaires per week.
Total billionaire wealth grew three times faster in 2024 than in 2023.
Each billionaire saw their fortunes grow by US$2million a day on average. For the richest 10 billionaires their fortunes grew by US$100 million a day on average.
Last year Oxfam forecasted a trillionaire within a decade. If current trends continue, there will now be five trillionaires within a decade.
Meanwhile, according to the World Bank, the number of people living in poverty has barely changed since 1990.
60% of billionaire wealth comes from either inheritance, cronyism and corruption or monopoly power.
In 2023, more billionaires were created through inheritance than entrepreneurialism for the first time.
In 2023, the richest 1% in the Global North were paid US$263 billion by the Global South through the financial system–over over US$30 million an hour.
Of the US$64.82 trillion extracted from India by the UK over a century of colonialism, US$33.8 trillion went to the richest 10%; this would be enough to carpet London in £50 notes almost four times over.
DEVELOPMENT FRANCE-OXFAM, THE COMMITMENT TO REDUCING INEQUALITY INDEX 2024, Overview/Executive Summary, 16 October 2024, excerpts:
Now in its fifth edition, the Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index (CRI) assesses the commitment of 164 countries and regions to fighting inequality. The CRI 2024 offers powerful new evidence on whether governments are acting to reduce inequality through policies on public services, fair taxation and labour rights. It reveals negative trends in the vast majority of countries since 2022. Four in five have cut the share of their budgets going to education, health and/or social protection; four in five have backtracked on progressive taxation; and nine in ten have regressed on labour rights and minimum wages. Nine out of ten countries have backtracked in one or more area, meaning without urgent policy actions to reverse this worrying trend,economic inequality will almost certainly continue to rise in 90% of countries.
As in previous editions, the top performers in this CRI are all high-income OECD countries led by Norway (see Table 02). Due to their labour policies, these countries start from much lower wage inequality. They have high social spending and collect more tax revenue, allowing widespread coverage of public services and the greatest impact on inequality.
However, even these top performers are lagging in many indicators. For example:
An average of 5% of their citizens face catastrophic out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
Many have less progressive tax policies than they should. For instance, many do not have measures to make very high value added tax (VAT) less regressive, while corporate income tax (CIT) rates are generally low, except in Japan. High earners also pay a lower effective tax rate than most other citizens: in Denmark, the effective tax rate paid by the richest 1% has fallen by five percentage points over the last two decades.
Coming third overall, Australia scores poorly on labour rights. It has very short fully paid parental leave, currently 11 weeks.....
