Australia's rich are getting richer. Everyone else is stagnating | Greg Jericho

Is it fine for inequality to increase as long as everyone's incomes rise? That worked OK in the boom but now the richest households are pulling away

The latest figures for Australian household incomes and wealth released last week showed that income inequality has risen in the past two years. The average annual income of the richest 20% rose by 7%, while median households saw their income rise by just 1.3% in the same period.

Politicians love to justify economic policy by referring to "middle Australians" or the average household. So Australia's median income is important.