Australia’s richest got 50% richer during pandemic

Australia’s richest got more than 50 per cent richer during the pandemic prompting fears the crisis is “turbo-charging” inequality.

ACCORDING to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the combined wealth of Australian billionaires has risen by 52.4 per cent in the last 12 months.

While it dropped in March, their net worth then rose sharply and has continued to increase.

Billionaires in the UK and US have recorded a rise of around 25 per cent since last December.

Shadow assistant minister for Treasury, Andrew Leigh, told Guardian Australia that the figures “remind us of the importance of tackling inequality, which is significantly higher in Australia than it was a generation ago”.

At the other end of the scale, the Labour frontbencher said regular families were already struggling before the coronavirus crisis, adding that “recessions often worsen inequality but this one seems to have turbocharged the gap”.

And concerns over the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Australia have been heightened by the fact people receiving unemployment benefits are due to experience a cut to their income from January 1, with a reduction to the coronavirus supplement that was introduced to top up the jobseeker payment.

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