As cost of living pressures rise, Australia's wealth inequality is also increasing as new data shows extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.
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The nation's richest one per cent have accumulated 10 times more wealth than the bottom 50 per cent over the past decade, according to a report by Oxfam.
The Survival of the Richest report released on Monday shows the richest one per cent, who make up nearly 200,000 people with a combined wealth of more than $3 trillion dollars, have accumulated more than $2500 a second or $150,000 per minute for 10 years straight.
Additionally, billionaire wealth is now 61 per cent higher than it was before the pandemic and there are 11 more billionaires today than there were in 2020.
As international business delegates gather for the World Economic Forum's annual meeting, Oxfam Australia's director of programs Anthea Spinks said the report is proof of a broken system.
"It is quite shocking that at a time when millions of people around the world, including here in Australia, are struggling with the cost of living, rising inflation and still coming out of the COVID crisis - that there are people who have managed to amass even more wealth," Ms Spinks told AAP.
She called on the government to scrap tax cuts for the wealthy to help reduce poverty.
"One of the things we are calling for is for the Australian government to scrap stage three tax cuts ... restructuring our tax system and the model that we have can go a long way in addressing poverty and inequality," she said.
Oxfam reviewed data collected in the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2022 to calculate the proportion of new wealth outlined in its overall findings.
The median personal income in Australia is $52,338 per year, according to last year's Census data.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart, whose net worth is estimated to be $14.6 billion, and real estate developer Harry Triguboff, said to be worth $9 billion, are among the richest Australians, according to Forbes.
Australian Associated Press
