While the rest of us are still thinking up ways to make our last few dollars last till payday, new analysis has revealed just how much the country’s wealth gap keeps on growing. Brace yourselves, because as it turns out, we’ve now seen the number of Aussie billionaires more than double over the past decade.
Crunching the numbers from the Australian Financial Review’s latest Rich List, Oxfam Australia found those among the country’s wealthiest grew to 161 in 2025, up from 74 just ten years ago.
In new analysis published on Tuesday, the organisation found the total wealth of Australia’s richest 200 people — which includes names like mining mogul Gina Rinehart, former tech CEO Scott Farquhar, and Meriton founder Harry Triguboff — surged in the triple-digits, rising 160 per cent to $667.8 billion.
It’s even done some quick math on exactly how much billionaire wealth’s been growing since 2015, and it’s more than $137 million per day, on average. So while you might be weighing up whether or not to swing that $8 delivery fee on UberEats, Australia’s uber rich have collectively been pocketing roughly $95,000 — per minute.
“This level of inequality is not just morally wrong – it’s economically and socially dangerous. While millions of Australians are struggling to make ends meet, the country’s richest continue to amass eye-watering fortunes, often without lifting a finger,” said Oxfam Australia acting chief executive, Dr. Chrisanta Muli.
Property was cited as the most frequent source of wealth accumulation for the country’s rich folk, followed by retail, investments, and mining and resources. All this, of course, while young people remain pretty much locked out of the housing market; over 120,000 people in the country are experiencing homelessness; and an eye-watering 99.3 per cent of rentals are unaffordable for Aussies earning a full-time minimum wage, Oxfam pointed out.
“It is scandalous and unjust that property continues to be one of the biggest drivers of wealth across the decade while over 99 per cent of rentals are unaffordable for people earning a full-time minimum wage,” Muli added.
In fact, going by the analysis, the country’s largest property developer Triguboff has seen his net worth grow from $13.7 billion in 2016 to $29.7 billion in 2025. Translation: with his current wealth, the man could actually buy over 30,000 average Australian homes.
“The single most urgent, structural, and strategic action that the Australian government can take now is to rapidly and radically reduce the gap between the super-rich and the rest of society,” Muli remarked.
“We cannot allow billionaire wealth to continue to rise unchecked while two million Australian households struggled to put food on the table families skip meals and struggle to pay their bills.”
The average Rich Lister has more than 116,000 times the wealth of an Aussie in the bottom 50 per cent, it found.
So, what’s one big way to address this disparity while millions of Aussie struggle? The organisation reckons it could lie in the proposed reform on superannuation balances, which will see earnings (as in, the returns a super fund makes from investments) taxed at an additional 15 per cent for amounts above that $3 million threshold.
“To improve the integrity of our progressive tax system, we want to see superannuation and other tax loopholes closed for big corporations and the richest one per cent,” Muli said.
“This is the most effective tool we have to ensure a more fair and equal society. When tax loopholes are closed for the wealthiest, there will be more money in the budget for healthcare, affordable housing, action on climate change and ending poverty.”
Oxfam Australia’s calling on the Australian government and political parties to take things one step further, as it outlines three key points of action. These include a review of the tax system on how to better address wealth accumulation and raise more money for essential public services, and the introduction of a wealth tax on Australia’s richest one per cent, which it said could raise tens of billions annually in revenue.
The organisation’s also advocating for a permanent excess profits tax, so mega corporations don’t profit during emergencies (like pandemics, wars, and climate disasters).
Lead image: Getty
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