New analysis from Oxfam shows Australia's 47 billionaires earn an average of $67,000 an hour, more than 1,300 times the average Australian income, as the anti-poverty group calls on major political parties to tax the wealth of the super-rich to address inequities. Equality issues.

The Takers Not Makers report uses data from Forbes' real-time billionaire rankings (which categorizes billionaires in US dollars) to identify Australian billionaires, calculating that the wealth of Australian billionaires increased by more than 8% in 2024, i.e. 28 billion Australian dollars, a staggering growth rate of 3.2 million Australian dollars per hour.

According to the AFR Rich List 2024, the number of billionaires is even higher at 150 in Australian dollars.

Oxfam Australia chief executive Lynne Morgan said Australian billionaires' wealth was largely driven by the "inherited and ongoing effects of colonialism".

Along with property, the metals and mining industries have produced the most billionaires in Australia. According to the latest data from Forbes, Australia's two richest people - Gina Rinehart (Gina Rinehart) is worth $30 billion and Andrew Forrest (Andrew Forrest) is worth $16.3 billion. They all made billions of dollars from the mining industry.

Forrest, the former boss and current non-executive chairman of mining and green energy company Fortescue Metals Group, has previously said he would donate his wealth.

"We can see a direct correlation between the wealth of many of Australia's billionaires and the extraction of resources from traditional lands and Aboriginal owners," Morgan said.

In Australia, 35 per cent of billionaire wealth is inherited, while a third of Aboriginal people are among the poorest 20 per cent of the population, she said.

"Because billionaire wealth is often rooted in unearned privilege, much of it tied to generational advantage and colonial power, much of it goes untaxed," Morgan said.

Oxfam has called for a "relatively modest" wealth tax, with Australia's billionaires taxed at 2-5 per cent of their total wealth.

"The super-rich won't even notice it, but the effect will be to put billions of dollars back into public coffers," she said. “This will enable everything from schools to hospitals to adequate housing.

"With the federal election approaching, it's critical that our political leaders take bold steps to ensure the super-rich pay their fair share of tax. There is no other way we can achieve resource allocation."

Last year, Oxfam predicted there would be the first trillionaire within a decade. However, this forecast has been revised as billionaire wealth has accelerated, with at least five trillionaires now expected to emerge during this time.