The Commonwealth Treasurer

Biography

The Honourable Wayne Swan MP was sworn in as Treasurer on 3 December 2007 and elected unopposed to the position of Deputy Prime Minister on 24 June 2010.

Mr Swan has been the Member for the Brisbane suburban electorate of Lilley from 1993 to 1996 and from 1998 until the present, and has held senior economic roles in the Labor Party since 1998.

His focus as Treasurer is on strong economic growth, secure employment, competitive businesses, and a fairer go for low and middle income earners in the tax and retirement income systems.

He is best known for his role in helping to formulate Australia's successful response to the global financial crisis, for cutting income taxes in all three of his Budgets and for lifting the age pension.

Deputy Prime Minister Swan is the author of a well-received book on the economics of disadvantage, and lectured in public policy at the Queensland Institute of Technology (now QUT).

As a prostate cancer survivor, he is a vocal, tireless advocate for the early detection of the disease.

The Deputy PM was born 30 June 1954 in Nambour and grew up on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, where he now holidays each year with his wife, two adult daughters and teenage son.