Financial Review has revealed its Rich List, with mining magnate Gina Rinehart in the top spot for the fourth consecutive year, becoming Australia’s richest person worth a record $37.4 billion – up $3 billion from last year.
As interest rates rise and inflation hits a 30-year high, the 2023 Rich List is a tale of ‘everything old is new again’, with tech stocks and start-ups crashing, making way for the traditional wealth creators; manufacturing and mining.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Rich List, first published in BRW Magazine in 1983 when the total worth of Australia’s wealthiest people was $4.6 billion, and it took just $10 million to make the list. It now takes $690 million to make the Rich List, with the collective wealth of Rich Listers totalling more than half a trillion dollars at $563 billion.
Based on the Financial Review’s unrivalled and constantly updated database, the Rich List includes nine billionaires in the elite “ten-digit club” – those with wealth exceeding $10 billion.
The number of fortunes built on technology has fallen from 27 last year to 24, and the number of manufacturers rising from 11 to 17. Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar have seen their fortunes slump by 30%. They are now respectively worth $19 billion (No.6) and $18 billion (No.7).
Andrew Forrest is Australia’s second richest person, gaining $3 billion to $33.3 billion (up from $30.7 billion last year), while Anthony Pratt is in third spot, worth $24 billion. Property mogul Harry Triguboff increased his wealth to $23.8 billion, up from $21 billion, to fourth on the List. Having been on every issue of the Rich List since 1983, he appears on the cover of the special 40th anniversary issue.
Leap-frogging the Atlassian founders is Clive Palmer, whose mining royalties earn him more than $500 million a year alongside a $1.4 billion payday for his Queensland Nickel. With his fortune up 21% to $23.7 billion, Palmer is now Australia’s fifth richest person.
Ivan Glasenberg, who gained his wealth through commodity trading giant Glencore, has a wealth of $13.60 billion, up $1 billion from last year, and is now Australia’s eighth richest person.
The total wealth of Australia’s top 200 increased by just 1% from last year. In a mark of the diverging fortunes of Rich Listers, the combined wealth of the Top 10 increased by $13 billion while the combined wealth of those on the rest of the List went backwards.
Canva founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, occupy ninth spot with their wealth of $13.18 down from $13.8 billion last year. Rounding out the Top 10 is titan of business Frank Lowy, who has invested shrewdly since offloading Westfield in 2018. He’s worth $9.33 billion, up marginally from last year.
Rich List editor Michael Bailey said: “Some people criticise the Rich List as a mere celebration of wealth. We prefer to see it as a celebration of the hard work and innovation that continues to deliver prosperity to Australia.
“Back in 1983, the Rich Listers were worth a combined $4.6 billion. If they’d merely parked all of that in risk-free assets, the List today would be worth a combined $15 billion. Yet here we are at $563 billion, which speaks to the entrepreneurial nous of our Rich Listers.”
The full 40th annual Rich List will be available online and will appear in a special edition of The Australian Financial Review Magazine in this Friday’s Financial Review.
Rich list cover – Inaugural edition
The Financial Review Rich List 2023 Highlights
TOP 10 (worth a collective $216 billion)
1. Gina Rinehart – $37.41 billion – Resources, Agriculture
2. Andrew Forrest – $33.29 billion – Resources
3. Anthony Pratt & family – $24.30 billion – Manufacturing
4. Harry Triguboff – $23.80 billion – Property
5. Clive Palmer – $23.66 billion – Resources
6. Mike Cannon-Brookes – $19.01 billion – Technology
7. Scott Farquhar – $18.17 billion – Technology
8. Ivan Glasenberg – $13.60 billion – Resources
9. Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht – $13.18 billion – Technology
10. Frank Lowy – $9.33 billion – Property
STATE BY NUMBERS
1. NSW – 76 Rich Listers
2. VIC – 61
3. QLD – 20
4. WA – 18
5. SA – 3
6. ACT – 2
7. NT – 1
7. TAS – 1
TOP 5 WOMEN RICH LISTERS (Combined wealth of $59 billion)
1. Gina Rinehart (ranked 1) – $34.41 billion
2. Melanie Perkins with Cliff Obrecht (9) – $13.18 billion
3. Angela Bennett (20) – $4.63 billion
4. Alexandra Burt and Leonie Baldock (29) – $3.86 billion
5. Katie Page with Gerry Harvey (37) – $2.91 billion