Wayne Swan
Encyclopedia
Wayne Maxwell Swan is the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party
(ALP) member of the Australian House of Representatives
from 1993 to 1996, and then re elected in 1998 till today , representing the Division of Lilley
, QLD. Following Labor's win at the 2007 election, he became Treasurer of Australia
in the First Rudd Ministry
.
On 24 June 2010, Swan was elected unopposed as the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, and became the Deputy Prime Minister
when Julia Gillard
was sworn in as the Prime Minister
later that day, remaining also Treasurer.
. He attended Nambour State High School
, graduating in 1972. Kevin Rudd
attended the same school at the same time, although the two did not know each other. Swan won a Commonwealth scholarship to study public administration at the University of Queensland
, becoming a lecturer in the Department of Management at the Queensland Institute of Technology
(now the Queensland University of Technology) before entering politics.
From 1978 to 1980 Swan was an advisor to the Leader of the Opposition Bill Hayden
, and from 1983 to 1984 was an advisor to federal Labor ministers Mick Young
and Kim Beazley
. He was State Secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party 1991–93.
in the March 1993 election, but was defeated in 1996. In 1996, Swan donated $500–$1400 (amount disputed) to the Australian Democrats
campaign manager in his seat of Lilley. At the time speculation surrounded the nature of the donation. The matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police
, who chose to take no further action. Following his election loss he was an advisor to Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
.
. After the 2004 election loss, Swan was appointed Shadow Treasurer. This came as a surprise, since it was rumoured that Latham wished to appoint then Shadow Health Minister, Julia Gillard
to the position. However, after strong opposition from Labor's Right Faction, Latham was put under pressure to appoint either Swan or Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Stephen Smith
as Treasurer.
Swan worked with Beazley and Industrial Relations spokesperson Stephen Smith to devise Labor's response to the Howard government
's 2005–06 budget and tax cuts. The ALP proposed tax relief for low and middle income earners earned mixed responses in the business community. Swan launched his book during the same month, Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation
.
In early November 2007 Wayne Swan and then Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd revisited their old school, Nambour State High School
. Rudd gave a speech to students, in which he said that, at school, "Wayne was very, very cool; and I was very, very not".
, Swan was appointed Treasurer of Australia
in Kevin Rudd
's cabinet
on 3 December 2007.
Swan's first budget concentrated on inflationary pressures in the economy, with substantially reduced spending that exceeds the $11 billion outlayed for tax cuts. The policy debate shifted around August 2008 after the mortgage lending banks in the United States began to collapse
and economic activity faltered
as American investments were written off one after the other.
In response to the resulting global downturn, Swan coordinated an "economic security strategy" worth $10 billion in October 2008. Designed as a stimulus package
and directed towards retail sales, it was largely supported by the International Monetary Fund
. When the December-quarter growth report showed an economy contracting, he moved ahead with the Nation Building and Jobs Plan to provide government-sponsored work worth $42 billion (initially planned for release under the 2009–2010 budget). The government also initiated a number of measures to support employment.
Swan delivered his second budget on 12 May 2009.
In June 2010, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced to resign, and Swan became Deputy Prime Minister under Julia Gillard
. He attended the G-20 summit in her place as both had been in office for only a couple of days.
On 21 September 2011, Wayne Swan was named world's best Treasurer by Euromoney magazine.
At age 48, Swan was diagnosed with prostate cancer
but has since fully recovered. He has become an advocate for the prostate cancer public awareness campaign.
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Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
(ALP) member of the Australian House of Representatives
Australian House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Parliament of Australia; it is the lower house; the upper house is the Senate. Members of Parliament serve for terms of approximately three years....
from 1993 to 1996, and then re elected in 1998 till today , representing the Division of Lilley
Division of Lilley
The Division of Lilley is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was first proclaimed in 1913. The division is named after Sir Charles Lilley, a former Premier of Queensland and a former Chief Justice in the Supreme Court of Queensland....
, QLD. Following Labor's win at the 2007 election, he became Treasurer of Australia
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
in the First Rudd Ministry
First Rudd Ministry
The Rudd Ministry was the 65th Australian Commonwealth ministry. It was led by Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party.The Ministry was sworn in by the 24th Governor-General of Australia Major-General Michael Jeffery on 3 December 2007, following the 2007 election, and it ended on 24 June 2010...
.
On 24 June 2010, Swan was elected unopposed as the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, and became the Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the second-most senior officer in the Government of Australia. The Deputy Prime Ministership has been a ministerial portfolio since 1968, and the Deputy Prime Minister is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime...
when Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
was sworn in as the Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
later that day, remaining also Treasurer.
Background
Swan was born and educated in Nambour, QueenslandNambour, Queensland
The area now known as Nambour, was first settled in 1870. The town was then called Petrie's Creek. In 1890 the Maroochy Divisional Board was established...
. He attended Nambour State High School
Nambour State High School
Nambour State High School is a co-educational, state high school located in Nambour, Queensland, Australia.Established on 2 February 1953, in 2006 the school had enrolment figures of 1,367, including adult students...
, graduating in 1972. Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
attended the same school at the same time, although the two did not know each other. Swan won a Commonwealth scholarship to study public administration at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
, becoming a lecturer in the Department of Management at the Queensland Institute of Technology
Queensland University of Technology
Queensland University of Technology is an Australian university with an applied emphasis in courses and research. Based in Brisbane, it has 40,000 students, including 6,000 international students, over 4,000 staff members, and an annual budget of more than A$750 million.QUT is marketed as "A...
(now the Queensland University of Technology) before entering politics.
From 1978 to 1980 Swan was an advisor to the Leader of the Opposition Bill Hayden
Bill Hayden
William George "Bill" Hayden AC was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the 1980 federal election to the...
, and from 1983 to 1984 was an advisor to federal Labor ministers Mick Young
Mick Young
Michael Jerome Young was an Australian politician. He rose through the Australian Labor Party to become its National Secretary, before serving as a Labor member of the House of Representatives from the 1974 election to 1988...
and Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
. He was State Secretary of the Queensland branch of the Australian Labor Party 1991–93.
Keating government
He was elected as the Member for LilleyDivision of Lilley
The Division of Lilley is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland. The division was first proclaimed in 1913. The division is named after Sir Charles Lilley, a former Premier of Queensland and a former Chief Justice in the Supreme Court of Queensland....
in the March 1993 election, but was defeated in 1996. In 1996, Swan donated $500–$1400 (amount disputed) to the Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
campaign manager in his seat of Lilley. At the time speculation surrounded the nature of the donation. The matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
, who chose to take no further action. Following his election loss he was an advisor to Opposition Leader Kim Beazley
Kim Beazley
In the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
.
Opposition
He was re-elected at the October 1998 election. Shortly afterwards, he was elected a member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry. He was Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services from 1998 and Manager of Opposition Business in the House from November 2001. During the 2003 Labor leadership contests he was a close confidant and supporter of Kim Beazley, but retained his positions under the new leader, Mark LathamMark Latham
Mark William Latham , an author and former Australian politician, was leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005....
. After the 2004 election loss, Swan was appointed Shadow Treasurer. This came as a surprise, since it was rumoured that Latham wished to appoint then Shadow Health Minister, Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
to the position. However, after strong opposition from Labor's Right Faction, Latham was put under pressure to appoint either Swan or Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith (Australian politician)
Stephen Francis Smith , is the Australian Minister for Defence. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1993, representing the Division of Perth, Western Australia....
as Treasurer.
Swan worked with Beazley and Industrial Relations spokesperson Stephen Smith to devise Labor's response to the Howard government
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
's 2005–06 budget and tax cuts. The ALP proposed tax relief for low and middle income earners earned mixed responses in the business community. Swan launched his book during the same month, Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation
Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation
Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation is a book by Australian politician Wayne Swan published in 2005. Swan has been Federal Treasurer since November 2007.-Reception:...
.
In early November 2007 Wayne Swan and then Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd revisited their old school, Nambour State High School
Nambour State High School
Nambour State High School is a co-educational, state high school located in Nambour, Queensland, Australia.Established on 2 February 1953, in 2006 the school had enrolment figures of 1,367, including adult students...
. Rudd gave a speech to students, in which he said that, at school, "Wayne was very, very cool; and I was very, very not".
Treasurer of Australia and Deputy Prime Minister
Following the 2007 federal election of the Rudd GovernmentRudd Government
The Rudd Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia of the Australian Labor Party from 2007 to 2010, led by Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. The Rudd Government commenced on 3 December 2007, when Rudd was sworn in along with his ministry...
, Swan was appointed Treasurer of Australia
Treasurer of Australia
The Treasurer of Australia is the minister in the Government of Australia responsible for government expenditure and revenue raising. He is the head of the Department of the Treasury. The Treasurer plays a key role in the economic policy of the government...
in Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
's cabinet
First Rudd Ministry
The Rudd Ministry was the 65th Australian Commonwealth ministry. It was led by Kevin Rudd of the Australian Labor Party.The Ministry was sworn in by the 24th Governor-General of Australia Major-General Michael Jeffery on 3 December 2007, following the 2007 election, and it ended on 24 June 2010...
on 3 December 2007.
Swan's first budget concentrated on inflationary pressures in the economy, with substantially reduced spending that exceeds the $11 billion outlayed for tax cuts. The policy debate shifted around August 2008 after the mortgage lending banks in the United States began to collapse
Late 2000s recession
The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...
and economic activity faltered
Late 2000s recession in Australasia
The business community in Australia and New Zealand had been affected by global financial crisis for a number of reasons. Although regional banks generally have good liquidity requirements, the commercial wing of the industry was overexposed to sovereign wealth funds and governments made few...
as American investments were written off one after the other.
In response to the resulting global downturn, Swan coordinated an "economic security strategy" worth $10 billion in October 2008. Designed as a stimulus package
Stimulus (economic)
In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary or fiscal policy to stimulate the economy. Recently "stimulus" has become particularly associated with Keynesian economics and the theory that government spending projects can generate economic growth in a recession...
and directed towards retail sales, it was largely supported by the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
. When the December-quarter growth report showed an economy contracting, he moved ahead with the Nation Building and Jobs Plan to provide government-sponsored work worth $42 billion (initially planned for release under the 2009–2010 budget). The government also initiated a number of measures to support employment.
Swan delivered his second budget on 12 May 2009.
In June 2010, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was forced to resign, and Swan became Deputy Prime Minister under Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
. He attended the G-20 summit in her place as both had been in office for only a couple of days.
On 21 September 2011, Wayne Swan was named world's best Treasurer by Euromoney magazine.
Family and other
Swan is married to his second wife Kim and has three children. An earlier marriage, when he was 21, lasted for one year.At age 48, Swan was diagnosed with prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
but has since fully recovered. He has become an advocate for the prostate cancer public awareness campaign.
External links
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