Wayne’s Swan Song – interview with Fran Kelly on the Radio National Hour

ALP National President Wayne Swan was interviewed on the Radio National Hour on 3 December

Speaking with RN’s Fran Kelly, Wayne shared his thoughts on the opportunities and challenges facing the Albanese Government after its historic election win in May this year.

Read excerpts from his interview below and listen to the whole conversation here..

What matters …. is the policy that the government follows and that it implements over time. You’re right, we’ve got a record majority and that majority can’t just be a trophy to admire, that majority has to be used as a tool to fix things, and I believe the Government will use it as a tool to fix things.

We have in this country, over the last forty years, achieved something pretty spectacular.   The country has grown reasonably strongly, and it’s grown with a greater degree of economic and social equity than just about any other advanced economy around the globe. So that’s something to be proud of. I think Australia stands tall on the global stage.

But also simultaneously there are insidious and frightening trends in politics and we see this trend to what you’d call the extreme right, you see the fractioning of the votes of the major parties and we have to always be aware that if you’re going to have a record majority then you’ve got to put in place the policies that ensure that you’re re-elected and that you can deal with the fragmentation in the political system and the drift to the hard right.

All political parties have a very big job ahead of them to motivate – to get new people involved in politics, and to inspire people that a political life is an honourable life, and an honourable political life can change a country.

One of the reasons I’m in the Labor party is that we have had a series of leaders from Gough right through to the current day who have seized the moment and put in place, over a long period of time, transformative programs which have lifted living standards and lifted the quality of our life.

I think that the Albanese Government is precisely in that position now and can go on to do that, but you can’t take your vote for granted at any stage, particularly in an environment where we’re seeing the kind of fracturing we are in the United States and elsewhere across Europe.