New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal just how much an average Australian earns. Being “rich” might not see you living like a Kardashian but we need to acknowledge that earning more than 90% of people puts you in the top 10%, and that much of the tax system is geared to benefit you.

Asking who is rich is a question that can send shivers down the spines of politicians.

I’ve encountered more than a few progressives who are at pains to protest that they are not rich despite being on a very good wicket. They immediately reel off their CV of working-class roots as though they are worried someone is about to accuse them they came from Greece with a thirst for knowledge.

There is far too much preciousness about wealth and income – and it benefits those who are doing a lot better than they would like you to know.

Australia does not have an official poverty line and so we rely only on the 1972 definition of the Henderson Poverty Line, which is not comparable to international measures.

Even given that, a single person on jobseeker is living about 40% below the poverty line.

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That isn’t something that perturbs the government too much, and certainly not more than it did suggestions of affecting the wealth of the 80,000 Australians with more than $3m in superannuation.

The way we talk about wealth and high incomes is so skewed that, for example, the government’s own advice on superannuation refers to the ASFA line that a

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