Swan himself has consistently said it was a mistake to make the return to surplus a key commitment. But this mistake was political, not economic, in nature. An attempt to get back to surplus despite rapidly declining revenue growth would have damaged the economy. The unsuccessful emphasis on returning to surplus was politically bad for the government, but it was not damaging to unemployment or economic growth.
While Swan’s work rate was prodigious, mainly due to the demands of the economic crisis, his record as an economic reformer is mixed. He continued the tradition of the treasurer pushing the reform envelope, arguing the case for change within the government. His reforms were different in nature from those of his predecessors: not so much cleansing the economy to improve efficiency but rather trying to institute a fairer tax system and prepare the economy for a post-carbon-intensive world. The design details of both reforms could have been improved, as Swan himself has conceded. But as is often the way, the hard yards done by Swan may well provide a road map that a future treasurer can use to embark on similar reforms, except with more consultation and refined details.
Avoiding recession is not an esoteric historical matter. Countries that go through deep recessions suffer extended hangovers and take a long time to recover. People who are made unemployed, particularly older people, may never return to the workforce. Swan lived through several recessions and saw their impact firsthand. He read about the tribulations of his predecessor Theodore and became determined to avoid a similar fate for himself and the nation.
Few treasurers in our history can say they successfully avoided a recession that looked inevitable. Swan can, and this is a significant achievement. For this reason, Swan deserves a place in the upper echelons of Australia’s treasurers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master. Then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.
Winston Churchill (former chancellor of the exchequer,
among other things), November 1949
NOT LONG AFTER the 2013 federal election, Louise Adler, the chief executive officer of Melbourne University Publishing, suggested that I may wish to write a memoir of my years as a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments. ‘I’m far too young to be writing memoirs,’ I replied. ‘And besides, I reckon a few too many of those books are being written already. But I’ve always wanted to write a book about Australia’s treasurers. How about I do that?’ With her positive response, this book was born. As a co-conspirator in the book’s creation, the first thanks go to Louise.
A very large thank you also to my editor, Sally Heath, whose constant feedback and encouragement as I emailed her iterative chapters was, as it was with our first collaboration, Hearts and Minds, invaluable. Thanks to copyeditor Paul Smitz for his invaluable attention to detail and his forbearance as we exchanged too many emails about what terms should be capitalised and how the endnotes should be constructed.
Writing this book often involved interpreting economic and political events from many years ago, which has required some assistance to ensure accuracy. I’m grateful to Professor Ross Fitzgerald, who looked over the chapter on Ted Theodore and answered my esoteric questions about Queensland electoral politics for the chapter on Arthur Fadden. Australia’s pre-eminent modern political historian (and a journalist for the last forty years), Paul Kelly, read and provided invaluable feedback on the chapters on Jim Cairns, Bill Hayden and John Howard. I am most grateful to Australia’s foremost economic historian, Professor Selwyn Cornish of the ANU, who read every chapter and discussed them with me over multitudinous cups of tea. He is a fine man and a good friend.
Each of the living treasurers who are the subjects of chapters in this book cooperated by giving me their time and feedback. So my thanks go to Bill Hayden, Paul Keating and Wayne Swan. Particular thanks to John Howard and Peter Costello, who may have had understandable concerns about sharing their thoughts with a partisan opponent. They cooperated willingly. While they will not agree with all of this book’s conclusions, I hope they accept that these views are genuinely held and their contributions to public life are respected.
Thomas McCrudden in my own office and the various staff at the Parliamentary Library indulged my repeated requests for esoteric texts and my strange, detailed questions about ancient economic decisions by long-dead treasurers. They have my thanks and appreciation.
To my friends and family, who have put up with me dropping anecdotes about Watt, Page, Fadden and all the others into conversations for the last twelve months, I am sorry and grateful.
Thanks as always to Bec, Grace and Max, who have put up with their husband and dad pecking away at the laptop at family time with various treasurers’ biographies strewn over the lounge room.
I thank all of the above for their care and attention. The usual disclaimer applies: as author, I claim full ownership of any errors of fact, omission or interpretation.
Chris Bowen
Smithfield, 2015
ENDNOTES
Introduction
1 The United States also has a treasurer, but it is a relatively minor role, best equated with the chief executive of the Royal Australian Mint, who is responsible for the production of currency.
2 John Howard is the only exception to this rule. While every other treasurer has been in the top five when it comes to Cabinet seniority, Howard was eighth in official seniority and clearly not in the government’s inner circle in his early years as treasurer.
3 There have,
