Background: Studies show widespread widening of socioeconomic and health inequalities. Comprehensive primary health care has a focus on equity and to enact this requires more data on drivers of the increase in inequities. Hence, we examined trends in the distribution of income, wealth, employment and health in Australia. Methods: We analysed data from the Public Health Information Development Unit and Australian Bureau of Statistics. Inequalities were assessed using rate ratios and the slope index of inequality. Results: We found that the social gradient in health, income, wealth and labour force participation has steepened in Australia, and inequalities widened between the quintile living in the most disadvantaged areas and the quintile living in the least disadvantaged areas. Conclusion: Widening income, wealth and employment inequalities have been accompanied by increasing health inequalities, and have reinforced and amplified adverse health effects, leading to increased mortality inequality. Effective comprehensive primary health care needs to be informed by an understanding of structural factors driving economic and health inequities. Over recent decades, Australia has become more unequal in terms of income, wealth, employment, and health. We analysed publicly available Australian data and found that the social gradient in health, income, wealth and labour force participation have all steepened. This makes calls for comprehensive primary health care even more urgent as one strategy to address underlying structural factors driving these worsening inequities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]