Australia’s ten richest people include five mining moguls, three Jews and two divorcees who make the list only because of the wealth of their husbands.
Mining magnate and heiress Gina Rinehart, 70, is the wealthiest person in the country with $40.64 billion, up 8.5% year-on-year, according to the Rich List 2024 published by the Australian Finanical Review on Friday.
Australia’s second richest person is 91-year-old Jewish property mogul Harry Triguboff with $26.49 billion, up 11.3% in the past year. The Meriton property empire founder complained earlier this month that Australia needed more migrants “from everywhere” since he was seeing fewer Chinese buyers for his apartments.
In third place on the Rich List are Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, 44, and ex-wife Annie Todd, with a combined net worth of $24.38 billion, up 28.2% since May last year.
The AFR did not separate the pair in the list since the details of their financial settlement are still unknown, but halving the total would put them both in equal tenth position.
At number four is Jewish packing and paper tycoon Anthony Pratt, 64, and chairman of Visy Industries. Mr Pratt is worth $23.30 billion, down 4.1% year-on-year. Once a strong supporter of Donald Trump, Mr Pratt now backs the Biden administration, telling US investigators last year that he is the type to “side with the king”.
Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, 44, is at number five with $22.88 billion, up 25.9% since last year. Mr Farquhar, who lives in a harbourside mansion, is an outspoken mass immigration advocate who in 2022 said the government should let him bring in as many high-paid skilled migrants as he wanted.
Politician and mining mogul Clive Palmer, 70, is in sixth place with $22.75 billion, 3.8% less than he owned in 2023. Mr Palmer helped defeat Labor’s Voice to Parliament referendum, and in 2022 denied reports that he had bought Adolf Hitler’s bulletproof Mercedes for his vintage car collection.
At seventh place is Nicola Forrest, who entered the Rich List for the first time after her split from mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest. She has a net worth of $16.92 billion.
Her green energy spruiking ex-husband, 64, comes in at eighth place with $16.76 billion, down 49.6% year-on-year due to mainly to the end of his marriage. Andrew comes in below Nicola on the list since she owns 50 million more shares then he does in the iron ore company he founded, Fortescue.
The South African-born Jewish former boss of mining giant Glencore, Ivan Glasenberg, makes the list at ninth with $14.86 billion due to his Australian citizenship, even though he lives in Switzerland. His wealth grew by 9.2% over the past year.
At tenth spot are Canva founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, both under 40, who are worth a combined $13.62 billion, up 3.2% year-on-year.
