Women get richer in Australia
30 January 2016 by News Desk
The number of women in the new Forbes Australia rich list has doubled in the past 12 months.
But spare a thought for Australia’s richest person who has seen 30% of her wealth disappear in the past year. Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart saw her wealth fall by $4.5 billion in 2015 – but you need not shed a tear, she still has a fortune valued at $8.5 billion.
Rinehart is one of eight women that feature in the latest Forbes Australia rich list that has twice the number of women compared to 2014. Rinehart, once the richest woman in the world, has been top of the Forbes Australia rich list for the past five years thanks to the iron ore boom Down Under.
Now Australia’s richest person is another woman – a former migrant – American-born Blair Parry-Okeden. Heir to US media company Cox Enterprises, Parry-Okeden has a personal fortune of $8.8bn. She recently became an Australian citizen after migrating to Australia some decades ago.
Third richest person in Australia is property investor Harry Triguboff, who enjoys a net worth of $6.9bn.
The person who gained most in the past 12 months is Mike Cannon-Brookes, whose wealth increased by 62% to $1.78bn following stock market floatation of his company Atlassian, making him Australia’s 17th richest person.
