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Barbara stands by the river to collect clean water. If everyone paid their fair share of tax, we could have a chance to meet the basic needs of people living in poverty, give them control over their own lives and the opportunity to change their futures.

The inequality stat that’s shocked the world

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Extreme inequality is one of the defining issues of our time. Today, just 62 individuals have the same wealth as the poorest half of the world. That’s just 62 mega-rich individuals compared to 3.5 billion people. Read more »
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Australia: Show us the money to help end poverty in Addis Ababa

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Helping to end poverty and inequality, and supporting communities to tackle climate change – they’re the biggest challenges facing the world today. But at the moment, Australia is failing do its fair share on both counts. In July our leaders have an opportunity to change this. At the Finance for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, Australia […] Read more »
Photo: Yusuf Ahmad/Oxfam

Rising inequality hits home for Australia

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Next year the richest 1% of people in the world will have more wealth than the other 99% of people. Australia can be part of the solution to global inequality – but it means not turning our back on the world’s poorest people. Read more »
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director Oxfam International addressing the People's Summit in Brisbane, 14 November 2014. Photo: Jason Malouin/OxfamAus

G20 leaders must turn the tide on inequality and climate change

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The two great challenges of our time — inequality and climate change — are threatening to undermine the efforts of millions of people to escape poverty and hunger. By concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few, inequality robs the poorest people of the support they need to improve their lives. Read more »
Oxfam Australia's message to G20 World Leaders in Melbourne St South Brisbane. Photo: Ann Matson/OxfamAUS

G20 Leaders: Welcome to Brisbane

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Remarkably more than half of the people in G20 countries, the economic powers of the world, live below the poverty line of $2US per day. These people are mainly in China, India and Indonesia, large countries and major trading partners of Australia, this year’s host. The G20 can do something about this. Read more »
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I can’t remember a time when we have laughed together

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Barbara’s house is made of mud and has a tin roof. She’s sitting outside, tearing Kalembla leaves from their stems, dropping them into a small bowl on her lap. Her two children Gertrude (10) and Edward (5) are next to her, their eyes fixed wide. They are subdued, limbs propped around each other, stroking the dry earth with their feet. Read more »
Photo: Tica Vieria/OxfamAUS

The politics of poverty and the new consensus for equality

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In the lead up the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November, Oxfam Australia CEO Dr Helen Szoke spoke at The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in Adelaide about the threat posed by extreme inequality and the opportunity that tackling it represents. Below follows an edited excerpt from Dr Helen Szoke’s speech. Right now, we live in […] Read more »
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75 years to achieve equal pay is too long

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Women can expect to wait another 75 years before they receive the same amount of pay as their male counterparts. That’s according to Oxfam’s new report, The G20 and gender equality – How the G20 can advance women’s rights in employment, social protection and fiscal policies  which highlights the role of the G20 group of countries […] Read more »
Photo: Pablo Tosco

Who’s carrying the budget burden?

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In a time when the world’s 85 richest people own the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people, the Australian Government has announced a budget that will widen the gap between the rich and the poor, leaving many who need more, with less. By abandoning its commitment to aid, the government is choosing poverty and inequality over a more prosperous, secure and caring world. Read more »
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Rapidly growing inequality is worsening poverty around the world

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A new report from Oxfam sheds light on rapidly growing extreme inequality and how it worsens poverty around the world, as Prime Minister Tony Abbott prepares to spruik Australia’s G20 agenda at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. The report, Working for the Few, shows that the wealth of the world is divided […] Read more »