Bloomberg / Contributor via getty
Who said girls can’t exploit the system? According to a report from City Index, Australia is home to the fifth-highest number of female billionaires in the world. Inspired by the notion that more and more billionaires seem to be electing to call Australia home, the global investment broker “scraped” the Forbes live billionaire tracker, to assess just how many ultra girl bosses this country is home to. In a win for women’s equality, not only is Australia a hospitable incubator for baby lady billionaires, the results are clear: in this country, they can thrive.With nine billionairesses, Australia ties for fifth place with India and Hong Kong. In first place is the United States: a veritable lady billionaire farm, housing NINETY TWO GIRL-BILLIONAIRES. That’s double second place, China, which has 46. That’s why they call America the greatest city on earth. Even women can become billionaires in the land of opportunity. The land of flimsy labour protection laws, tax evasion, wage theft and a whole smorgasbord of libertarian, conservative policies that reward the rich and keep the poor down, down, down… for what is a kingdom without its serfs…In comparison to America, Australia’s nine billionaires may seem less sinister. But don’t be fooled. Let’s take a look at our wealthy women.The Rinehart family, Australia’s fracking heiresses, make up 44 per cent of Australia’s lady billionaires. Our richest woman is Gina Rinehart, with a $43.17bn net worth. Her daughters, Ginia Rinehart, Bianca Rinehart and Hope Welker are all worth at least $3 billion AUD, with Bianca and Hope each worth $3.14 billion, and Ginia $3.16 billion [extra millions for Ginia because her mum clearly just added an “I” to her own name for hers]. Gina is Australia’s richest person, period. It’s amazing what you can achieve when your life revolves around pilliaging any natural resource you can get your hands on.Australia’s Mark Zuckerberg [in terms of an idea that changes the world, not… everything else], Melanie Perkins, is Australia’s second-richest woman. The co-creator of Canva has a net worth of 5.27 billion. Also of note are Melbourne’s billionairesses, sisters Fiona Geminder and Heloise Pratt, daughters of the late Richard Pratt, who was one of Australia’s richest men. At 3 and 4 on the lady billionaires list, the sisters are worth $3.77 billion AUD and $3.17 billion respectively. Fiona’s $7m increase is likely due to her stakes in Visy – paper, packaging and recycling – and Pact Group, also packaging and recycling.What does all of this mean…? It means girls can be billionaires too. With the right dedication, appetite for exploitation, stone-cold snake veins, hunger for power, heart of greed, inheritance and willingness to step on whoever whenever needed, anyone can do it, regardless of gender.We did it girls!Follow Arielle on Instagram and Twitter.Read more from VICE Australia and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week Online.
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