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Articles by Wayne Swan
Extraordinary Times Demand Extraordinary Actions
Wayne Swan was sworn in as Australian Treasurer on 3 December 2007. He has been Member for the Brisbane seat of Lilley from 1993 to 1996, and from 1998 to the present. In 2005 he published Postcode: the Splintering of a Nation, a well-received book on economic and social policy in Australia. Before Wayne's appointment to his current role, he was Shadow Treasurer for three years and for six years Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services (1998-2004).
How super strengthens Australian democracy
SHARE Copy Link Bluesky Facebook X LinkedIn Before I was a politician, I was a day labourer. For many of my older co-workers, after four decades on a building site, the pension was hardly something to look forward to. The superannuation savings workers have today came about because unions went on strike for it. And they won – $11 a week: $9 for super, a dollar for administration and a dollar for insurance.
Ground sizes - the real facts
#8 SCG has been lengthened a couple of times. A few metres when they did the new Trumper Stand near the old hill - you will notice there are a few rows missing from the front of the Churchill Stand. Then another few metres when they did the latest redev down the other end. So it's only about 5m shorter than the G and also about 5m narrower. However mucking around with the length during the redevs has resulted in a non symmetrical ground, a couple of the pockets/flanks are shallower than the others.
How Australia's housing crisis can be fixed
Forty years ago this week, the Australian Council of Trade Unions backed a motion from the Building Workers Industrial Union for a national, comprehensive superannuation scheme. This historic union driven initiative led to the creation of the Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund (Cbus) in 1984 and over the following decades, unions working together with employer groups have made superannuation, including funds like Cbus, the success they are today.
15 years on, Australia still reaps reward of response to the GFC
Share Twitter Facebook Reddit Pinterest Email What we can see more clearly now than we could then, is that the collapse of Lehman Brothers on this day 15 years ago and its punishing global consequences changed the way we thought about economic policy. In doing so, it prepared us to respond better to the COVID-19 pandemic than we would have otherwise.
There is much work to do to combat anti-superannuation sentiment
It wasn’t all that long ago that for most people retirement meant just getting by on the pension. No luxuries, no holidays, no spoiling the grandchildren. Such things were the preserve of a very lucky minority with generous pension plans attached to their salaries – airline pilots, professors, bank workers, public servants, police force members, and others. For the rest, giving up work might mean living on the borderline between sufficiency and poverty.
Decades of industry super profits rebut the spurious claims by vested interests
It is in members' interests for funds to invest in the modern economy. Photo: TND/Getty Share Twitter Facebook Reddit Pinterest Email To listen to some commentators, you would think superannuation was about politics rather than retirement. What is clear after 30 years of compulsory super is that the majority of Australians have super accounts that will help provide the sort of comfortable and enjoyable retirement their parents could barely dream about.
Deleted tweet from Wayne Swan (australian-labor-party)
RT @jonfavs: Thanks to Trump’s tax cut, corporations lowered their effective tax rate to just 7% - the lowest since WWII. And yet the IRS collected $100 billion more from individuals last year. Democratic candidates should be shouting this story from the rooftops. yahoo.com/news/corporati…
Deleted tweet from Wayne Swan (australian-labor-party)
Politwoops is the only comprehensive collection of deleted tweets by politicians that offers a window into what they hoped you didn't see.
There's more to superannuation than saving for retirement
Ten years ago today, Euromoney judged Australia’s Global Financial Crisis response as the best among the world’s developed nations. As treasurer at the time, I knew we had relied on two killer weapons to avoid being dragged into the Great Recession: Aggressive government stimulus, and our national superannuation sector.
Investing in public schools is investing in Australia's future
I had to laugh when Josh Frydenberg’s budget was celebrated, in the usual strange places, as some triumph of Keynesian-style stimulation. In the real world, this was a document that followed barely any of the lessons that made Australia the envy of the world after the Global Financial Crisis, preferring to spray cash with both eyes fixed on the next election. In doing so, there was only one ideological tradition being nodded to: trickle-down economics.
Wayne Swan: How the pandemic has reshaped our politics
Once or twice a century, nations experience cathartic events that shift their very foundations and the general public decides that things must change. 2020 and 2021 will go down in history as a period where hundreds of thousands of Australians switched their vote to Labor premiers who prioritised the health and welfare of their citizens over the survival-of-the-fittest economic mentality.
Sydney Writers' Festival - Upturn
As the world came to terms with the devastating realities of COVID-19, our sense of what normal life looked like was turned on its head. In this timely anthology Upturn: A better normal after COVID-19– edited by Tanya Plibersek – writers and public thinkers share their visions of how we might not just rebuild in the pandemic’s wake, but move towards something better.
Democracy is fragile, and Liberal party Trumpism puts Australia in danger
The day after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, the Financial Times – the world’s pre-eminent financial journal – observed: “America has a national security problem in the form of the far right”. “This closed world of misinformation, paranoia and grievance receives succour from mainstream conservatives, public office holders and cable news anchors,” it added, before concluding that the costs, “are increasingly unmistakable”.
Want to pay for an extra 54,000 nurses? Then stop corporate tax abuse
The costs of the pandemic are being borne by the poorest and most vulnerable. The economic burden of rescue packages should not fall on them as well. Former federal treasurer Wayne Swan on why we need to overhaul corporate tax rules. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (Image: zz/Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IPx) Every year, the world is losing over US$427 billion in fiscal resources to international corporate tax abuse.
It is time for those who have the most to pay the most.
The coronavirus pandemic that has been ravaging our planet for almost a year now has not only killed at least 1.33 million people, caused an explosion of unemployment and deprived hundreds of millions of children around the world of schooling. It has probably also provoked deep disruptions in the world’s economy, the long-term impact of which promises to be far-reaching.
Wayne Swan: Weakening superannuation is a once in a 100 year mistake
Australia appears set to make the biggest policy mistake possibly since Federation – wilfully eroding our national savings pool in our greatest hour of need. Twelve years ago this week the global banking behemoth Lehman Brothers collapsed, triggering what was the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Fortunately, trenchant Liberal opposition to Labor’s stimulus did not succeed and Australia emerged a world economic leader.
Liberals tearing down the pillars of our super scheme
There are many things that Australia is admired for around the world, but in the economics sphere, nothing is more admired than our superannuation system. It’s a structural reform of political and economic audacity. It has produced a $2.7 billion savings pool that helped us stare down the GFC and revolutionise capital formation in Australia. It will deliver a dignified retirement for millions of Australians and, over time, dramatically lessen dependence on the age pension.
Do we have the political will to write a new social contract?
Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (AAP Image/Getty Pool, Sam Mooy) In politics, as in life, there’s an eternal struggle to comprehend what might have been when we lived through what was. As this decade ends, there will be a vigorous debate about what would have been had the Morrison government not acted as it has.
do we have the political will to write a new social contract?
Australia needs a new social contract if it's to emerge from this crisis in one piece, writes Wayne Swan. (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas) In politics, as in life, there’s an eternal struggle to comprehend what might have been when we lived through what was. As this decade ends, there will be a vigorous debate about what would have been had the Morrison government not acted as it has.
An economic stimulus is okay now? Well, better late than never
Premium Insights and analysis Adobe The government can claim all it likes that this stimulus is only possible because they’ve restored the economy to strength, but its claim doesn’t wash, writes Wayne Swan. Twelve years ago this week, the merchant banks started to collapse, leading to the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent Great Recession that wrecked the global economy for nearly a decade.
Wayne Swan: the questions we have to keep asking the Morrison government
With the government suddenly changing its tune on economic stimulus amid the growing coronavirus crisis, former federal treasurer Wayne Swan asks if Morrison and co have what it takes to keep the country afloat. Former federal treasurer Wayne Swan (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas) Twelve years ago this week, the merchant banks started to collapse, leading to the global financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession that wrecked the global economy for nearly a decade.
Sometimes, Too Much Is…Too Much
Arguments Progressives have a proposal for everything. But as we Australian Laborites learned this year, that can open you up to attack. By Wayne Swan from October 8, 2019, 4:02 pm – 7 MIN READ Tagged australiacampaignDemocratsElectionspolitics In November 2016, progressives around the world were devastated by Donald Trump’s win over Hillary Clinton.
Pay taxation, buy civilisation
Read this interview in German. You say that the impact of taxation avoidance is much harsher in the developing world than, let’s say, in Australia and Germany. Why? The stakes are very high, particularly for the developing world. In the developing world, personal income taxes (PIT) are considerably lower than the OECD average and corporate income tax (CIT) is considerably higher than the OECD average.
We need a major demolition job on multinational tax evasion
Scroll to top Email address or username Remember me Global inequality has reached a point that requires drastic action. As the saying goes: pay taxation, buy civilisation. Global wealth inequality needs a global progressive tax. (Image: Getty Images) In April 2009 as Australian treasurer I attended the G20 Leader’s Summit in London in response to the Global Financial Crisis.
Mieux taxer les entreprises pour lutter contre le changement climatique
L’année 2018 s'est achevée et le bilan des catastrophes naturelles donne le vertige. Après Irma, Maria et Harvey, l'ouragan Florence a laissé un paysage dévastateur dans les Caraïbes. Des températures extrêmes dans l'hémisphère Nord ont provoqué des incendies dévastateurs en l'Europe et aux États-Unis. En Afrique du Sud, la sécheresse historique a pris d’approvisionnement d’eau la mégalopole du Cap et ses quatre millions d’habitants.
The Coalition’s savagery towards the ABC is consistent with their cultural disregard
The government has been in ABC attack mode since 2013, the same year it promised in opposition there would be no cuts to the ABC. This piece is part of a Crikey Deep Dive series: “What is the ABC For?”. We’re trying to unravel and distill some of the crucial questions the ABC should be asking itself in this post-Guthrie/Milne era.
It’s time tax-dodging MNCs paid their dues
It’s been a year of natural disasters. After Irma, Maria, Harvey, hurricane Florence left a devastating landscape in the Caribbean. Extreme temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere have caused devastating fires from Europe to the US. Dozens have been killed in the Philippines after Typhoon Mangkhut triggered landslides. And the worst consequences of climate change are yet to come.
IPA Welcomes Comments By Wayne Swan
John Roskam, Executive Director of the free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs today welcomed comments by ALP Federal President, Wayne Swan about the role of the IPA in public debate.
Does the debate about women quotas, bullying indicate a liberalising Liberal Party?
Quality women candidates have been reaching and getting knocked back from Liberal Party preselection panels en masse for two decades. What's so different now? The women and some men pushing for gender quotas in Liberal Party preselection appear to believe that it’s no big deal -- as, they also believe, it’s no big deal to start up a discourse about bullying in the party.
Long-distance running won't make you immortally youthful, but you will feel better
Running is great. Try it. But also know that this exertion will not lead you to a paradise full of ancients. And know that your face is going to wither regardless. You can tell when the West has forgotten which way is up: it cuts its pants too low. Consider the early 2000s US rise of the very low-rise pant. It is precisely when our clothes no longer bother to conceal a human crack we should no longer hope that the state will cover our arses.
After 40 years, the smoking gun proves who was behind The Dismissal
Yes, there was a conspiracy to dismiss Whitlam. And now we can prove it, writes John Menadue, private secretary to Gough Whitlam 1960-67 and former Immigration Department executive. The evidence continues to mount against those who collaborated in the dismissal of the Whitlam government. To obfuscate and cover their tracks, those who collaborated in The Dismissal and their establishment friends spare no effort to criticise the performance of the Whitlam government.
Tips and rumours: who is working the Ken Wyatt 'defection' stories?
Hanson-Young's questionable pun, La Trobe's grim future and who's trying to take down Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt? We're not sure about Sarah Hanson-Young's new book title, Mamamia's co-founder stops just short of claiming to be the first actual website, and just who's going after Ken Wyatt? From the Crikey grapevine, it’s the latest tips and rumours … Wyatt's going on here? So, is Ken Wyatt a would-be defector to Labor?
Australia needs to prepare for the trade war or end up a casualty
Whatever the outcome of the building trade war between the US and China, Australia's economy will be affected dramatically — for better or worse. This just got big. The burgeoning trade war between China and the US was mostly gesturing until now -- a few tens of billions worth of tariffs being chucked round. But Donald Trump has now taken it to a new level. Trump this week announced tariffs on $200 billion of goods and pledged a further $267 billion worth if China dared retaliate.
Is the US right to charge North Korean hacker Park Jin Hyok?
The decision by the US government to lay charges against a hacker working for North Korea has sparked off a debate about how the world should respond to the digital crimes of the Hermit Kingdom.
Freedom warriors have the single worst take on strawberry needle crisis
The symbiotic love between freedom warriors like Rita Panahi and an all powerful police state are perfectly clear. Whenever some regulation comes along, the Twitter libertarian push -- Phelps, James Morrow and the like -- go into their peanut gallery chorus. "Nanny state!" "Nanny state!" "Free minds, free markets!" Blah, blah.
The road not taken: Wayne Swan reflects on the global financial crisis
History will conclude that the critics of Labor’s GFC response 10 years ago were hopelessly wrong. By avoiding a sudden, deep recession, Australia also avoided testing out what its effect may have been on our democratic system. It’s one of the great ironies of recent history that possibly the biggest beneficiary of the economic policies I led as treasurer during the global financial crisis has been the Coalition. Why?
Ten Years After the Crash, Tax Competition Threatens the Global Economy and Democracy
Ten years ago, the global financial system was rocked by the largest crisis since the Great Depression. On September 15, 2008, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy after its highly leveraged housing loan portfolio finally collapsed under the weight of widespread mortgage defaults. The global economy lost its nerve, and hundreds of thousands of individuals lost their jobs, their homes and livelihoods.
10 years after Lehman, it’s another mess
Ten years ago, the global financial system was rocked by the largest crisis since the Great Depression.On September 15, 2008, the US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy after its highly leveraged housing loan portfolio finally collapsed under the weight of widespread mortgage defaults. The crisis that followed was the almost inevitable culmination of decades of lax financial regulation.
Beating the bandits - who's robbing whom in the great corporate tax heist? - Crikey
Who are the real villains when it comes to tax — short-sighted governments or greedy corporations? Will cutting company taxes increase wages, or merely line the pockets of an idle rich? Are all company bosses baby-eating imperialists, or are the vast majority honest Australians doing their best to get by? All these questions and more will be answered in the new Crikey series “Beating the bandits: who’s robbing whom in the great corporate tax heist?”
Six years, two prime ministers and staring down the Great Recession
Click on the Google Preview image above to read some pages of this book! A highly personal account of the Rudd and Gillard governments from the heart of the Cabinet and the real story of how Australia avoided the Great Recession from the man recognised as the best treasurer in the world This is Wayne Swan's very personal account of an extraordinary period in Australian politics.
Wayne Swan: strip Australia Day honours from tax cheats
Scroll to top Email address or username Remember me You want to prove your service to Australia? Pay your taxes, writes former treasurer Wayne Swan. While the Australia Day Honours list recognises the diverse ways in which individual Australians contribute to our community, inevitably the list includes some scoundrels as well. Over the years Australians as diverse as Rolf Harris and Alan Bond have been stripped of their Orders of Australia for breaking the law.
Extraordinary Times Demand Extraordinary Actions
Browser does not support script. Browser does not support script. Browser does not support script. Loading the player... Browser does not support script. Download : Audio, Transcript Speaker(s): Wayne Swan Chair: Howard Davies Recorded on 13 March 2009 at Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House Wayne Swan was sworn in as Australian Treasurer on 3 December 2007. He has been Member for the Brisbane seat of Lilley from 1993 to 1996, and from 1998 to the present.
Facing strong winds of economic change
Rising inequality is not a necessary evil that is the inevitable result of economic growth; in fact it is now recognised as a threat to sustainable economic growth. Michael Cooney and Wayne Swan write… Inclusive prosperity is a new way of thinking about Australia’s economy. At the heart of the matter is a simple premise: economies grow faster when everyone shares in the growth.
Sharing the benefits of growth - Australian leadership in the G20
Australia’s international engagement reached a new high when it was admitted to the modern G20 on a temporary basis at the end of 2008 and a permanent basis later in 2009 says former treasurer Wayne Swan. This was a momentous change in global governance and, in my view, Australia’s greatest foreign policy achievement since the founding of APEC 19 years earlier.
Australia's G20 leadership: Fairly sharing the benefits of growth
The Lowy Institute analysis 'Making the Most of the G20', which argues the G20 should be at the centre of Australia's approach to economic engagement, explores many of the themes that will be aired in this debate. It was inevitable that maintaining relevance would become more difficult over time; nevertheless, two years on from Australia’s hosting of the 2014 Brisbane G20 summit, the G20 has largely descended into a talk-fest to which very few are listening.
Inclusive Prosperity Should Be Popular, Not Populist
As voters in the UK brace for the impact of Brexit and US citizens contemplate the candidacy of Donald Trump, in Australia Malcolm Turnbull's government has fallen over the line after a long and lifeless Coalition campaign. Pundits predicting an easy, if reduced, Coalition majority have been confounded by the size of the swing against the government and the emergence of fringe parties preaching simple, if not simplistic, policy agendas.
A government all about crushing workers and the labour movement
There is a stench of dishonesty about the Liberal-National government; its agenda, its motives and its foul propaganda are the same no matter who leads them because Australians all know Tony Abbott’s baton has just passed to the next runner, writes the former 2011 world’s best treasurer, Wayne Swan. The Registered Organisations Bill and its twin, the ABCC Bill were never about cleaning up corruption in Australia. They’re not about making building and construction more efficient.
The Tax Elephant In The Room
It's been seven years since the subprime feeding frenzy collapsed Lehman Brothers. As global demand fell off a cliff the global economy entered the Great Recession from which demand is yet to recover. The lead up to the Great Recession was characterised by mass speculation through complex derivatives most notably Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs).
Australia Plus America Should Equal Canada
The persistent sluggishness in the global economy and rising inequality in both the United States and Australia requires us to reject the policies of austerity and instead adopt an agenda of inclusive prosperity -- where public investments designed to improve equality also lift growth.
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