Australia now has 48 billionaires (up 8 since 2020, because why not?), and these 48 people collectively hold more wealth than the bottom 40% of the entire population — that's roughly 11 million everyday Aussies combined.
Meanwhile, the average Aussie billionaire's wealth grew by almost $600,000 per day over the past year. That's right — while rents climb, groceries hurt, and 3.7 million people (including 757,000 kids) live below the poverty line, the ultra-rich are casually printing half a mil a day. Totally normal, totally moral.
Oxfam is calling it what it is: inequitable, unsustainable, and amoral.
Their big ask? A 5% wealth tax on billionaires alone could've raised $17.4 billion just last year — enough to fund universal cheap childcare, extend energy bill relief for years, massively boost humanitarian aid, and actually ease the housing/childcare squeeze that's crushing everyone else.
Throw in scrapping negative gearing, killing the capital gains tax discount for the wealthy, and maybe a broader progressive wealth tax on the top 0.5%, and suddenly there's real money to fix the things governments always say "we can't afford".
But sure, let's keep protecting the system that lets 48 people out-wealth 11 million, while the rest of us argue about whether $2 milk is a human right. Classic Australia 2026.
Tax the rich. Disrupt the vicious cycle. Make billionaires pay their fair share for once.
***Side note:***
For context, the AFR Rich List 2025 (from May 2025) counts 161 Australian billionaires in AUD$ terms (net worth of AUD$1 billion or more), with the top 200 controlling $667.8 billion total and an entry threshold of $747 million (far higher than the ~$65 million needed in the 1980s). Oxfam deliberately highlights the ultra-elite 48 (Forbes USD threshold) for the most dramatic inequality stats, but the broader picture shows even greater concentration of extreme wealth.
#taxtherich #wealthtax #auspol #inequality #billionaires #oxfam #economicjustice #housingcrisis #childcarecrisis #povertyinaustralia #eattherich
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/wealth-tax-australia-billionaires-oxfam/9wsstq0nw
