Mining boom gouged a wider wealth gap in Western Australia, report finds
(Minews) - The gap between the richest and poorest households in Western Australia widened during the resources boom, when the state’s total wealth stock ballooned by about $270bn, according to a new report.
The ‘sharing the boom’ report released by the Bankwest Curtin economics centre (BCEC) at Curtin University on Wednesday showed there was a rise in both income and wealth inequality in the state between 2003 and 2011.
The richest 10% of households had about 3.8 times the income of the poorest 10% of households in 2003-04. This climbed to 4.8 times in 2009-10 before falling slightly to 4.5 times in 2011-12.
“The lowest-income households in the state are falling further behind, increasing the gap between the poorest families and everyone else,” the BCEC’s director, Alan Duncan, said.
“There have been real gains among the lowest-income households, but the report shows they haven’t been able to share in the benefits of the boom to the same degree as higher earners, financially at least.”
The report also showed high-income households in WA were twice as likely to be headed by a tradesman as those in the rest of Australia.
Eighteen per cent of high-income households in WA were headed by those who are employed in the trade occupations, compared with only 9% of high-income households in the rest of Australia.
Publish date : Friday 28 February 2014 21:04
Story Code: 4497
