Social Justice & Action
Billionaire “bandits”
Billionaire wealth in Australia has grown by an “eye-watering” 25 per cent to a record high of $357 billion during the pandemic.
According to the Australian Financial Review, there were 48 more billionaires in 2020 than there were three years earlier – a doubling of billionaires in the last three years.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has called for Australia’s widening inequality to be at the centre of the next federal election. He says the pandemic has meant ordinary people have suffered while “billionaires and big corporations are making out like bandits”.
“Before the pandemic, workers’ share of income in Australia had sunk to the lowest level in history, while corporate profits reached record highs.
“Since then, the pandemic has not just hit our health and our freedom of movement; the pandemic has made inequality worse,” he said.
According to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in mid-February over two million Australians were unemployed or underemployed.
The ACTU described the figures as “alarming” and warned they will worsen with the termination of JobKeeper and with JobSeeker payments reduced to $40 a day.
“JobKeeper and JobSeeker have been the backbone that held our economy together during the pandemic and to cut them while entire sectors are still feeling the effect of the crisis is short-sighted and dangerous,” said ACTU President, Michele O’Neil.
“Genuine recovery from the pandemic recession will require comprehensive support, job creation and wage growth.”
‘The pandemic has made inequality worse.’
— Greens leader Adam Bandt