Australia's billionaires grew their combined wealth by $100 million a day last year, Oxfam has revealed as it calls for tax changes to close the growing gap between rich and poor.
The nation now has 43 billionaires worth $160 billion between them, while the top one per cent of Australians have more wealth than the bottom 70 per cent combined.
"Oxfam Australia is concerned there is no end in sight to this harmful trend that is concentrating ever more wealth in the hands of the already rich and powerful," the charity's chief executive Helen Szoke said on Monday.
"Australia is among the wealthiest nations in the world, yet the pervasive gap between the haves and have-nots persists. This inequality simply cannot - and does not need to - continue."
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart remains the nation's richest person, despite her cash pile recently being cut by $2.5 billion, but the overwhelming majority of Australian billionaires are men.
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