September 16, 2026

ACOSS

Billionaire wealth surges as 3.7 million live in poverty

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Oxfam reports a new record number of Australian billionaires, enjoying staggering increases in wealth, while high living costs drive more people into poverty.

An Oxfam analysis of the Australian Financial Review Rich List found that the wealth of Australia’s billionaires increased by $25.67 billion in the past year, equivalent to almost $50,000 a minute.

Australia now has 178 billionaires, up 17 from last year.

In contrast, Acoss estimates that 3,706,000 Australians live in poverty, including 757,000 children under 15 years.

One in three households experienced food insecurity last year, meaning they stressed about or struggled to put food on the table.

The 20 richest Australians now hold more wealth than the bottom three million households.

Oxfam Australia’s chief executive, Jennifer Tierney, told the Guardian that while many Australians continue to feel the brunt of high living costs, billionaire wealth was continuing to surge.

“There is something fundamentally wrong with a system where extreme wealth keeps skyrocketing while so many people are struggling to afford the basics, and governments claim there is not enough money for housing, healthcare, climate action and essential services,” she said.

The increase in billionaire wealth in the past year alone could have lifted nearly a million Australians out of poverty or covered household electricity bills for every single Australian household for well over one year, she said.

Federal Government spends more on property investor tax breaks than social housing, homelessness services and rent assistance combined

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Recent analysis by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) shows that in 2025 the government spent $3.3 billion more on property tax breaks than social housing, homelessness services and rent assistance combined. 

Social housing in Australia is at a record low, making up less than 2% of dwellings built today – an incredible decline from the 22% built annually in the 1950s. In 2025 social housing comprised 3.6% of dwellings, nearly 3% worse than the average for G7 countries, and 4.4% behind EU countries. 

There is also strain on social housing, as the number of those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness has risen from 26% to 41% of the public housing waitlist over the last decade. 

Data shows the homelessness crisis is getting worse, and as increasing numbers of Australians struggle to meet their basic human right to shelter, criticism of the government’s property tax breaks is growing. 

ACOSS’ recommendations to the Federal Government include significant curbing of the Capital Gains Tax to gradually halve the current discount, and to phase out negative gearing over five years. Alongside this reduction in expenditure, ACOSS calls for national social housing targets to be set and investment to grow the housing supply.  

“This report today shows housing stress and homelessness are getting worse while absurdly generous tax breaks drive up home prices and supercharge inequality in our society,” said ACOSS Acting CEO, Jacqueline Phillips. 

“More people are struggling to afford the private rental market, pushing them into homelessness and onto growing social housing waitlists… Property investor tax breaks come at a staggering cost of more than $12 billion each year, which could be spent on social housing, social services and supports that benefit everyone.” 

Report shows most likely to live below the poverty line in Australia

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Note: This report uses the latest available data from 2019-2020. At this time inflation averaged at 1.5%.

In 2021-2022 inflation rose 7.8%, the highest increase since the 1990s. In this same period wages only increased 3.3% (2.5% in the public sector).

It can be assumed that the current economic climate and lack of real wage growth is creating exacerbating economic inequality and forcing more Australian’s into poverty.

According to the latest report by the Poverty and Inequality Partnership between ACOSS and UNSW Sydney, women and part-time employees are some of the most affected by poverty in Australia.

In 2019-20, more than one in eight people (13.4%), and one in six children (16.6%) lived below the poverty line*. Equaling over 3,319,000 people and 761,000 children.

Women were significantly more likely to be affected. When the main income earner of a household, women are twice as likely to be below the poverty line than men in the same position.

Households where the main income earner worked part-time also were also more likely to live below the poverty line (18%).

This is a concerning report for nurses and midwives. Women make up almost 90% of nurses, midwives and aged care workers, and more staff are turning to part-time work to cope with increasing workloads and decrease in working conditions.

Earlier this year, the ACTU conducted a poll that showed almost a quarter of respondents were regularly skipping meals and 56% had cut back on essential items to cope with the cost of living crisis.

Essential healthcare workers need to be treated with the respect they deserve, not to be forced into poverty.

Additional groups facing highest risk of poverty (2019-2020):

  • 72% of people on Parenting Payments;
  • 34% of people in sole parent households; and
  • 20% of people with disability and a ‘core activity restriction’; and 43% of people on Disability Support Pensions.

We look forward to working with the newly elected NSW government to increase nurses and midwives’ real wages as well as implementing nurse-to-patient ratios, bringing more employees back to full-time and back from interstate.

*The poverty line based on 50% of median household income ranged from $489 per week for a single person to $1,027 per week for a couple with two children.

Health groups slam inadequate Morrison budget

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Health advocates across multiple sectors have panned the Morrison Government’s recent budget for being inadequate in its approach towards health care.

The Morrison Government’s so-called “Back in Black” budget is slated to return the nation’s finances to surplus at the expense of health, disability and welfare initiatives.

Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe noted that while the budget was a “good start”, it did not go to the heart of tackling dementia and provide adequate care for those living with the condition.

“A comprehensive and coordinated action plan is required to address the complex needs of people living with dementia [and] I urge for significant investment in dementia care”, Ms McCabe said.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation echoed this sentiment, calling the budget a “missed opportunity” to address concerns about the safety and quality of Aged Care facilities across the country.

Rural health has also been left off the agenda, with the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) noting that the budget contained “few benefits” for the health of rural Australians.

NRHA CEO Mark Diamond said that they were “disappointed to see that major population health issues were missing in the budget”.

The Australian Council of Social Service has also condemned the Government budget, with CEO Cassandra Goldie indicating that this budget “guarantees more cuts to essential services”, disadvantaging already vulnerable Australians.

Inequality continues to rise

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A report by the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and the University of NSW found that Australia’s richest 20 per cent own almost two thirds of the country’s wealth.

The report – Inequality in Australia – found the richest 20 per cent of Australian households own 62 per cent of all wealth, while the lowest 50 per cent own just 18 per cent.

The average household wealth in the highest 20 per cent group is $2.9 million, five times that of the middle 20 per cent and almost a hundred times that of the lowest 20 per cent at $30,000.

The top one per cent has an average weekly disposable income 
26 times the income of a person in the lowest 5 per cent.

Acoss chief executive Cassandra Goldie said the report “deeply challenges our sense of Australia as an egalitarian country”.

“The Australian experience in recent decades shows that inequality has increased strongly in economic boom times and flattened with a slower economy and slow wage growth across the board,” she said.

The report warns that inconsistent social security policies, such as the decision to freeze Newstart payments while indexing pensions to earnings, a long-term trend towards greater inequality in hourly wage rates and growing inequality in the distribution of wealth, were likely to increase inequality.

Household wealth has become even more concentrated, it says, thanks in part to “generous tax treatment for superannuation and a property boom”.

You can read the full report at: https://www.acoss.org.au/.

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