Let Springsteen be your boss, minister
urges Australians

Wayne Swan said the country could learn a lot – and avoid pitfalls – by listening to his music.

Mr Swan said the star, nicknamed The Boss, has long been his political inspiration. He said the New Jersey-born working class hero’s music railing against inequality echoed his own public battle against Australian billionaire mining tycoons who oppose his tax reforms.

Mr Swan, named by banking magazine Euromoney as the world’s finance minister of the year for 2011, also said Springsteen’s songs should serve as a warning to Australians against following the US road toward widening economic inequality.

“The Boss was and remains my musical hero,” said Mr Swan, who as treasurer is his centre-left Labour Party government’s chief economics minister.

Mr Swan, 58, said Springsteen often observed big changes occurring in US working class life long before economic statisticians recognised them.

He said Springsteen’s albums talked about the shifting foundations of the US economy before the subject became topical.

“If I could distill the relevance of Bruce Springsteen’s music to Australia, it would be this: Don’t let what has happened to the American economy happen here,” he said.

“Don’t let Australia become a Down Under version of New Jersey, where the people and communities whose skills are no longer in demand get thrown on the scrap heap of life,” he added.

Conservative opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey dismissed the remarks as “ridiculous.”

“It says everything about this government that it is guided by the principles of a rock singer, rather than any enduring philosophy that builds a stronger nation,” he said.