Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation

Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation is a book by Australian politician Wayne Swan published in 2005. Swan was the Federal Treasurer from December 2007 to June 2013.

Postcode: The Splintering of a Nation
AuthorWayne Swan
LanguageEnglish
GenrePolitics
PublisherPluto Press Australia
Publication date
2005
Publication placeAustralia
Media typeSoftcover
Pages248
ISBN1-86403-360-6
OCLC61203382
330.994 22
LC ClassHN850.Z9 S6472 2005

Reception

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Swan's concerns were criticised when his government payment reforms were made known to the public. It was alleged, in an article by Jessica Irvine in The Sydney Morning Herald, that restriction of access to family benefits for upper-middle income earners, less than half of whom have any children to provide for, was unjust given the loss of the "baby bonus", worth $5,000 per infant, was not applied in equal measure to those who didn't run a household.[1]

Reviews

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Frank Bongiorno noted that the book frames the socialist ideas of "reducing poverty and disadvantage, with education and training to play a key role both in achieving this goal and in lifting the country's economic performance more generally; phasing out private debt and consumption; and creating a more rational interaction between the welfare and tax systems" in a circumspect manner. There was a discernably more nuanced take on the evolution of "disadvantage" than in similar critiques but it then proposes languid (dated) and politicised (apersonal) solutions to such a crisis, thus disengaging the reader, early in the discourse.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Irvine, Jessica (17 May 2008). "Swan's Robin Hood image dented". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 25 August 2008.
  2. ^ Bongiorno, Frank (12 June 2006). "'My Plans for the Nation'—Labor politicians' designs on Australia's future". Australian Review of Public Affairs Digest. Sydney: The University of Sydney. ISSN 1832-1526. Retrieved 25 August 2008.