by ERIN COOKE
The uber wealthy differ from their predecessors not just in how they made their money but in how they spend it Sam Bennett IMAGE/Australian Financial Review
Two reports last week underscore the yawning gulf in Australia between the super-rich and the millions of working class people—on whose labour power the wealthy built their obscene fortunes—who face destitution.
This year’s Rich 200 list, published by the Australian Financial Review, estimates that the combined wealth of the top 200 individuals reached a record $197.3 billion. The number of billionaires soared to 53.
Under the headline, “The new luxurians,” the newspaper’s magazine celebrates the rise to new heights of a tiny layer, awash with staggering amounts of money to spend. “Today’s uber-rich aren’t just filthy rich, they’re fabulously, filthily rich,” it writes.
“There should be no surprises,” according to the article, “in a diamond-studded dog collar advertised for $US3.2 million, a super-yacht with a $US84 million price tag and a penthouse at Manhattan’s The Mark Hotel on offer for a mere $US90,000 a night.”
Collectively, the riches accumulated by the top 200 have more than trebled since 1999, when the total of $57 billion was itself an eightfold increase since 1983, the first year of the pro-business restructuring commenced by the Hawke Labor government.
At the other pole of society, the National Economic and Social Impact Survey by the Salvation Army charity of the people seeking its help, found that soaring housing costs pushed many into “bleak” circumstances. One in five parents said they could not afford medical treatment for their children and two in five could not afford regular dental treatment.
Respondents on any type of welfare benefit had an average of just $16.96 a day on which to live, once they paid for accommodation. Half reported cutting back on basic necessities, with 43 percent going without regular meals and one-third pawning belongings to cover living expenses.
Not accidentally, this year’s Rich 200 list is headed, for the first time, by a residential property developer, Harry Triguboff, the head of the Meriton Group apartment empire. His wealth soared to $10.62 billion this year, and has almost doubled from $5.5 billion just two years ago. His company has profited directly from a property bubble of soaring real estate prices that has made it almost impossible for young working class people to purchase a home.
Triguboff is one of 54 property developers who made the top 200 list this year, primarily because of higher property and share values. This highlights the increasingly parasitic character of the corporate elite, whose fortunes are soaring even as factories and mines shut down, at the direct expense of workers suffering layoffs and losses of pay, conditions and welfare support.
The apartment king, who claims to be on track to sell $1.2 billion worth of apartments in 2016, displaced mining magnate Gina Rinehart from the top spot on the list for the first time since 2011. Rinehart’s wealth dropped dramatically from $14.02 billion last year to $6.06 billion, mainly due to falling iron ore prices.
Second on the list is Anthony Pratt, executive chairman of the cardboard and recycling giant Visy. He and his family’s wealth is $10.35 billion. The others in the top 10—each worth more than $3 billion—are property developers, shopping mall owners, casino operators, mining barons and a telecommunications CEO.
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