Wednesday, March 17, 1999
Rich are getting ... you guessed it
By PAUL CLEARY
The gap between top and bottom incomes in Australia is widening at an
alarming rate, with Sydney's top suburbs enjoying strong gains while
incomes are steady or declining in regional Australia.
Incomes in some of Sydney's top suburbs rose by nearly 10 per cent in
1996-97, a year of low inflation.
But the bottom end of Australia's income spectrum is found in regional
areas, where incomes are at best showing negligible growth, and in some
cases they are declining.
The ratio between average income in the top postcode and the bottom blew
out to 4.12 times, up from 3.67 times in the previous year.
The latest Taxation Statistics 1996-97 show that eight Sydney postcode
areas on the North Shore and the east were listed in the top ten. NSW had
only two listings in the bottom 10, Koraleigh, on the Victorian border near
Swan Hill, and Woody Head.
The figures are compiled from the information in income tax returns filed
by Australian taxpayers.
The incomes reported in the report are "taxable", which is after deductions
and the use of mechanisms listed in the report to reduce income tax,
including trusts and companies. The Tax Office report also highlighted a
steady rise in the use of these tax-minimising vehicles.
The residents of Darling Point, Edgecliff and Point Piper, who share the
postcode 2027, enjoyed an 8.3 per cent rise in average taxable income to
$76,028. This was 3.3 times the bottom income recorded by the ATO.
Melbourne's Toorak retained its No2 position, but the residents of postcode
2088, Mosman/Balmoral, moved from fifth to third place with income growth
of 7 per cent.
The fastest growing postcode area was Killara. It moved from 10th to fifth
place, with income growth of 9 per cent.
But in regional Australia, four of the bottom 10 incomes listed in the
report were lower in nominal terms than the previous year. The lowest
income postcode, Frankland, WA, with an average of just $18,416, was 3.7
per cent below the lowest one reported in last year's report.
The next lowest, at $19,114, was about $100 less than the previous year.
The bottom end appears to be more volatile. Only two postcodes from the
previous year's list made it into 1996-97.
This indicates that incomes from the latest year have also fallen from
their level in the previous year.
The ATO also revealed a widening gap between incomes of men and women. In
1996-97 the average income for men was $31,291, 45 per cent high than the
women's average.
The ATO said the gap "has been increasing over time".
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