Sign the petition and join us in calling on the government to:
Make big corporations pay more tax, especially when they make massive crisis profits off things like a global pandemic or conflict
Stop short-changing our community by making billionaires, big corporations and people on high incomes and pay their fair share of tax
Stop giving billions of dollars in subsidies (i.e. cash handouts) to fossil fuel corporations, already making billions in profit, and make these big corporate polluters pay for their climate damage
Today, extreme wealth is growing exponentially while 3.5 billion people live under the poverty line
Around the world, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian war on Ukraine and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, more people are going hungry and struggling with rising prices, while real wages are declining. People living in extreme poverty are being hit the hardest.
Meanwhile, big corporations are making huge profits and billionaire wealth is skyrocketing.
Big Australian corporations together made an extra $98 billion in profits off the back of the crises, at the cost of everyday people.
The billionaire owners of these corporations are also getting richer.
In Australia, Billionaire wealth has increased by $128 billion since 2020. There’s been a new billionaire every three months.
Globally, billionaires are over $3 trillion wealthier in 2024, a pace three times faster than 2023. All the while the number of people living below the poverty line hasn’t changed since 1990.
The system is unfair and favours big corporations and billionaires. But we can fix it.
Make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share
In East Africa, as a result of conflict, rising food prices, and drought and flood caused by climate change, millions of people face hunger and are being forced from their homes. Nearly 700 million people live in extreme poverty across the world.
Meanwhile, billionaires are making massive profits during times of crisis, adding to their lavish lifestyles – private jets, multiple mansions and super yachts, which are also fuelling climate destruction.
Such extreme inequality shows our economic system is failing humanity. But we can fix it. Billionaires and big corporations who have benefited from an unfair system must pay their fair share.
Extreme inequality is no accident
Many big corporations pay little or no tax in Australia, and receive cash handouts from the government, despite making gob-smacking profits year on year.
A nurse pays more than many large domestic and multinational corporations in Australia, a third of whom paid zero tax in 2022-23, despite making billions in income.
As a result, wealth inequality has reached extreme levels. In the past decade, the richest 1% of Australians have accumulated 10 times more wealth than the bottom 50%. That’s more than $2,500 per second for 10 years straight.
Tackle inequality. Let’s make tax fair
We all want to live in a society where everyone is able to keep a roof over their head, food on the table and to live with choice, dignity and equal opportunity. At Oxfam, we are striving for a fair and equal future without the inequalities that keep people in poverty.
To ensure there is enough money in our budget to pay for the services everyone needs and cherishes, the super-rich need to pay their fair share of taxes.
By increasing the Australian Government’s tax revenue, there will be more money available to fund better quality healthcare, education and action on climate change as part of a strong social safety net to alleviate poverty at home and abroad.
All lives are equal. Let’s fight for a society without the inequalities that keep people in poverty.
MAKE TAX FAIROur campaigns
Make corporations pay their fair share
Many big corporations are making super profits, often during times of crisis. Its not fair that they rake it in, while the rest of us struggle with the cost of living. Its time they gave more back to the community through a crisis profits tax.
Bill the billionaires. Fight inequality.
A wealth tax on Australia’s richest would generate $32 billion annually. This would help balance the scales on inequality and ensure there is money in the budget for essential services like health and education, and to eradicate poverty.
Make Polluting Corporations Pay
Big energy corporations and billionaires are most responsible for the climate crisis. It’s time to tax rich polluters, end fossil fuel subsidies and use the funds to support communities already experiencing the destructive impacts of climate change.
Read our reports
Takers Not Makers: The unjust poverty and unearned wealth of colonialism
Takers Not Makers, reveals an unsettling reality: the world’s billionaires continue to make trillions while billions of people continue to live in poverty. The report underscores how today’s inequalities reflect centuries of colonialism and exploitation, and the continued dominance of the wealthy elite and multinational corporations over low-income countries and people.
Carbon inequality kills
The evidence is clear: the world’s richest people are using a disproportionate amount of the world’s remaining carbon budget and setting us all on course for irreversible and catastrophic global warming.
Cashing in on Crisis
In 2022-2023, top 500 Australian corporations raked in $98 billion in additional windfall profits, or ‘crisis profits’, that they wouldn’t have made under normal circumstances. These profits are part of a wider crisis-fuelled inequality story, where billionaires were able to increase their wealth and boost their bank balances while the rest of us endured rising costs of living.
Inequality Inc
The wealth of the three richest Australians, Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest and Harry Triguboff, has more than doubled since 2020 at a staggering rate of $1.5 million per hour, while 5 billion people find themselves poorer. These are some of the stark findings of Inequality Inc, an Oxfam flagship report launched ahead the 2024 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99%
The richest 1% emit as much carbon pollution as two-thirds of humanity. This is just one of the shocking findings of Oxfam’s landmark ‘Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99%’ report released ahead of the annual United Nations international climate change conference COP28.
Survival of the Richest
Oxfam revealed that the richest 1% of Australians accumulated 10 times more wealth than the bottom 50% in the past decade, as cost-of-living pressures bite and global inequality spikes.
In the News
In January, billionaires amassed more wealth than the poorest third of humanity owns
Billionaire wealth surged by over $300 billion in the first month of the year. It would take 15 million workers an entire year to make as much money. Since G20 Finance Ministers agreed to work together to effectively tax the super-rich in July 2024, billionaires have pocketed over $1 trillion in new wealth. More than […]
Nearly two-thirds of millionaires think influence of the super rich on Trump presidency is threat to global stability
New poll shows millionaires deeply concerned about impact of extreme wealth as more than 370 millionaires and billionaires sign open letter to world leaders at Davos demanding they draw the line and tax the super rich As the global elite gather in Davos this week for the annual World Economic Forum, a new poll reveals […]
Oxfam welcomes world leading Australian tax transparency legislation
Oxfam Australia has welcomed today’s passing of world-leading legislation on Public Country by Country Reporting of multi-national corporate tax and profit information as a significant step forward for tax transparency. This legislation will enable policy makers, civil society, journalists and academics to gain transparency over how multinational corporations are shifting profits to tax haven countries […]
Tackle inequality. Make tax fair.
Together, we can create a fair and equal future without the inequalities that keep people in poverty. Tell the Treasurer to bill the billionaires and big corporations. Make them pay their fair share.
MAKE TAX FAIR
