{"id":279836,"date":"2026-02-12T04:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T04:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279836\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T04:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T04:19:07","slug":"three-australian-millionaires-say-the-nations-super-rich-should-face-higher-taxes-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279836\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Australian millionaires say the nation\u2019s super-rich should face higher taxes | Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dick Smith, Graham Marr and Richard Barnes were the only three Australians among the nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires who signed an open letter last month<\/a> calling on all governments to increase taxes on the super rich.<\/p>\n

The open letter, timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, argued that extreme wealth was polluting politics, driving social exclusion and fuelling the climate emergency.<\/p>\n

Smith told Guardian Australia he joined the call for a wealth tax simply because it would \u201cbenefit us greatly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s such a large number of billionaires now, and a hell of a lot of people, I think about 30% of our population, lives pay packet to pay packet,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have no savings at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve said consistently is the top 1% should pay 15% more tax. Because the top 1% have the wealth equivalent to about the bottom 30%.\u201d This would bring the top tax rate to about 60%.<\/p>\n

Smith and his wife have given away more than $90m throughout their careers, and are aiming for a total of $100m before they die. When asked why more wealthy Australians did not sign the letter, Smith said \u201cprobably greed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them, I don\u2019t want to mention their names, but [they] don\u2019t give anything away. It\u2019s sort of a principle, or they\u2019re proud that they\u2019re a billionaire, and they don\u2019t give any money to charity at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Guardian Australia contacted the top 10 billionaires in Australia to ask if they would put their names to the open letter but did not get a response. On background, three said they were undertaking other philanthropic efforts and giving away large amounts of money.<\/p>\n

Graham Marr has amassed his wealth through holding high-income executive roles in the tech sector. He said he signed the letter because Australia\u2019s 48 billionaires hold more wealth than the bottom 40% of the population, which is 11 million people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that divide is getting bigger,\u201d Marr said. \u201cThe disparities are amplifying elitism around the country, and that opens doors for people when you have wealth, because it means access to lobbying. It means more access to potentially making political donations. It means more media ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a 5% wealth tax could raise around $17b annually towards childcare, housing and healthcare, and that government policies have not kept up with the growing divide between the super wealthy and everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery country has now got its runaway multi-billionaires, millionaires and billionaires,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they are having their time in the sun because their governments haven\u2019t really caught up to how to manage them.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause, politically, [when] the government starts trying to leverage a tax on somebody that\u2019s rich and influential, the media has a great way of turning that into a negative and spreading misinformation to the masses that somehow that tax is going to fall on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has hinted at changes to the capital gains tax in the next budget but has ruled out an inheritance tax. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n

The third Australian to sign the list, Richard Barnes, has had a long career as an anaesthetist in the public system, making about $400,000 a year. With his wife, they have built $5m in assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich means there are about 150,000 Australians as well off as I am,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of whom could make a greater contribution to the public purse than they currently do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The median full-time income in Australia is $90,532 per year, which means those in the middle-class aren\u2019t likely to accumulate \u201ca huge amount of wealth other than compulsory superannuation\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Barnes wants to see a more progressive income tax system, a tightening of the 50% capital gains discount and an inheritance tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cWealth disparities are greater than income disparities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd harder to capture, because wealth gives one the opportunity to avoid income tax.<\/p>\n

\u201cA wealth tax and an inheritance tax say: \u2018we don\u2019t care how you got your wealth, a slice is going to public revenue\u2019. It would be levied annually, be based on net wealth, cast a wide net, have a threshold and be progressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has hinted at changes to the capital gains tax in the next budget, he has ruled out an inheritance tax.<\/p>\n

\u2018I call them stingy billionaires\u2019<\/p>\n

According to an Oxfam report released in January, eight new Australian billionaires have been minted since 2020<\/a>, bringing the total number to 48. On average, they increased their wealth by almost $600,000 a day over the past year, or more than $10.5bn collectively.<\/p>\n

But the economist Saul Eslake said Australia was \u201cflying in the dark\u201d in terms of measuring wealth inequality because the Australian Bureau of Statistics has not released new data on the issue since 2020.<\/p>\n

In 2019-20, the ABS found the wealthiest 20% of the population owned 62.8% of total household wealth, up from 59% for 2003-04. It also showed the share of household wealth owned by people over 65 had almost doubled, reflecting \u201ca significant increase in the intergenerational inequity in the distribution of wealth\u201d, Eslake said.<\/p>\n

Eslake said there were \u201creasonable grounds\u201d for suspecting wealth inequality had increased in the five years since, given steep rises in the housing and stock markets.<\/p>\n

Property ownership in particular is driving the wealth of older Australians, though Eslake said there were \u201csome significant pockets of poverty\u201d among the over-65 age group.<\/p>\n

\u201cProperty is a much more important source of personal wealth in Australia than in any other comparable country,\u201d he said. \u201cThe home ownership rate among people aged 25 to 34 at the 2021 census was 43% that was down from a peak of 61% at the census of 1981.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joking that he gives his wealth away for \u201cselfish reasons\u201d because \u201cit makes me feel good\u201d, Smith said the public perception that Australia\u2019s billionaire class gives away their money was not true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not as if there\u2019s evidence that these billionaires \u2013 and I call them \u2018stingy billionaires\u2019 \u2013 are giving money away,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when there\u2019s no pressure from the media, why would they bother?\u201d<\/p>\n

Seven super-wealthy Australians, including billionaires Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, creators of Canva, and Andrew and Nicola Forrest, owners of Fortescue Metals Group, have signed the Giving Pledge, a campaign started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage wealthy people to give most of their money away before they die.<\/p>\n

But Rebecca Gowland, the international director at Patriotic Millionaires, the organisation that coordinated the open letter said while philanthropy \u201cstill plays a role \u2026 we need to acknowledge that it hasn\u2019t and it won\u2019t fix systemic issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to address extreme wealth in a mandatory way that obliges all wealth holders to contribute their fair share \u2013 just as it obliges all ordinary people to contribute,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the backbone of a functioning democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dick Smith, Graham Marr and Richard Barnes were the only three Australians among the nearly 400 millionaires and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-279836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}