Wayne Swan

Wayne Maxwell Swan (born 30 June 1954) is an Australian politician serving as the 25th and current National President of the Labor Party since 2018, previously serving as the 14th deputy prime minister of Australia and the deputy leader of the Labor Party from 2010 to 2013, and the treasurer of Australia from 2007 to 2013.

He attended Nambour State High School and graduated in 1972.

Kevin Rudd attended the same school at the same time, though was three years younger than Swan and the two did not know each other.

Swan won a Commonwealth scholarship to study Public Administration at the University of Queensland, where he resided at Emmanuel College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts.

After graduating he worked as a lecturer in the Department of Management at the Queensland Institute of Technology.

From 1978 to 1980, Swan acted as a policy adviser to Labor Leader Bill Hayden, and from 1983 to 1984 was an adviser to Government Ministers Mick Young and Kim Beazley.

He later worked as the State Secretary of the Queensland Labor Party from 1991 to 1993.

Swan was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1993 for Lilley in Queensland, although he lost this seat in 1996.

Swan was first elected as the Member for Lilley in the 1993 federal election, but was defeated three years later by Elizabeth Grace in what was a large defeat for Labor nationwide.

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.

He regained the seat in 1998 and represented it until retiring in 2019.

He worked as an adviser to Labor Leader Kim Beazley before contesting Lilley again in the 1998 federal election and regaining the seat.

Kim Beazley promoted Swan to the Shadow Cabinet in 1998.

Initially serving as Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services, he became the Manager of Opposition Business in 2001.

During the 2003 Labor leadership spills he was a prominent supporter of Kim Beazley, but retained his position in the Shadow Cabinet when Mark Latham became the new leader.

After the 2004 federal election defeat, Swan was promoted to become Shadow Treasurer.

This was seen by many as a surprise, as it was rumoured that Latham was intending to appoint then-Shadow Health Minister Julia Gillard to the position.

It was believed that strong opposition from Labor's Right Faction had put Latham under pressure to appoint either Swan or Shadow Industrial Relations Minister Stephen Smith to the position.

Early in the role, Swan worked to devise Labor's response to the Howard government's 2006 budget, with Labor proposing tax relief for low- and middle-income earners.

Swan launched his book during the same month, Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation.

After Kevin Rudd successfully challenged Kim Beazley to win the leadership of the Labor Party in December 2006, he reappointed Swan as Shadow Treasurer.

Following Labor's victory in 2007, Swan was appointed Treasurer of Australia by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

In early November 2007, Swan and Rudd revisited their old high school in Nambour.

Rudd gave a speech to students, in which he said that, while at school, "Wayne was very, very cool; and I was very, very not".

Following Labor's landslide win in the 2007 federal election, Swan was appointed Treasurer of Australia by Kevin Rudd on 3 December 2007.

Swan's first budget concentrated on inflationary pressures in the economy, with substantially reduced spending that exceeded the A$11 billion outlaid for tax cuts.

In this position, he played a key role in Australia's response to the Global Financial Crisis throughout 2008 and 2009.

The policy debate shifted around August 2008 after mortgage lending banks in the United States began to collapse and economic activity faltered as American investments were written off.

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 quarterly growth report showed the economy contracting, he moved ahead with the Nation Building and Jobs Plan to provide government-sponsored work worth A$42 billion.

This action was widely credited with preventing Australia from following much of the world into recession, as the March 2009 quarterly growth report showed that the economy had returned to growth.

In 2010, after Julia Gillard became Prime Minister, Swan was elected unopposed as Labor's deputy leader and was subsequently sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister.

In 2011, Swan was named Finance Minister of the Year by Euromoney magazine, joining Paul Keating as the only Australian Treasurer to have been awarded that title.

On 20 September 2011, Swan was named Finance Minister of the Year by Euromoney magazine, joining Paul Keating as the only Australian Treasurer to have been conferred that title.

In March 2012, Swan became the first treasurer or deputy prime minister to be ejected from the House of Representatives, after he referred to Andrew Robb, the then-opposition finance spokesperson, as "Curly", in reference to The Three Stooges.

After Rudd successfully challenged Gillard for the leadership in June 2013, Swan resigned from the Cabinet.

Swan was born and educated in Nambour, Queensland.