Australia’s 178 billionaires are $25.7bn richer than last year as 3.7 million live in poverty

The wealth of Australia’s billionaires increased by $25.67bn in the past year, equivalent to almost $50,000 a minute, according to new Oxfam Australia analysis of the 2026 Australian Financial Review Rich List. The anti-poverty organisation said the total wealth of Australian billionaires in 2026 has reached more than $686bn, while Acoss figures show 3,706,000 people 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. Australia now has its highest number of billionaires on record, at 178, up 17 from last year. A large amount of this new wealth has come from artificial intelligence and datacentres. In addition to regular rich listers such as Gina Rinehart , the new billionaires include property developers Anthony El-Hazouri and Charbel Hazzour, AI-driven jobs platform founder Katrina Leslie, mining boss Chris Ellison, fashion label White Fox founders Daniel and Georgia Contos, and luxury property developers Adrian and Peter Puljich. Oxfam said the figures highlighted the widening gap between Australia’s wealthiest people and ordinary households, with the 20 richest Australians now holding more wealth than the bottom 3 million households. …