Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has topped the Financial Review Rich List 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 one per cent 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 on www.afr.com and will appear in a special edition of The Australian Financial Review Magazine in this Friday’s Financial Review. High res images of AFR Magazine Rich List cover and original BRW Rich List cover HERE
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
