The former Labor treasurer will not recontest his Queensland seat and says it’s time instead for a ‘fresh, energetic, young candidate’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Labor veteran Wayne Swan will bow out of politics at the next federal election, and will confirm on Saturday he will not re-contest his Queensland seat of Lilley.

Guardian Australia reported in mid-January Swan was moving in the direction of retiring, with fellow AWU right faction member and former campaign manager Anika Wells considered the most likely candidate to step in.

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Swan, a former treasurer, and deputy prime minister during the Gillard prime ministership, says if he contested the next federal election he would be 67 years old at the end of the next term of parliament.

“I’ve considered running again, but it is something I would only do if I could devote myself 100% to the task,” Swan told Guardian Australia.

“Until now, I’ve been able to do this while finding a decent balance between work, family and fun, but the inescapable fact is I’m approaching a stage in life where it’s simply not possible to be a 100% committed MP and meet my other important obligations – pursuing my passions, keeping fit and healthy, and making time for our newest arrival, my first grandchild.

“Time stops for no one, including former treasurers.

Swan said he wanted to signal his intentions to give the next Labor candidate for Lilley the best chance of holding the seat.

“The area is changing rapidly and being repopulated with young families. It’s therefore time to hand the baton to a fresh, energetic, young candidate who embodies the changing nature of the electorate,” he said.

“I think it would be fitting if the party were to select on this occasion, a young woman with the energy and smarts to represent Lilley forcefully and successfully”.

Swan entered parliament in 1993, but lost the seat in 1996. He regained Lilley at the 1998 election.

In the period of opposition during John Howard’s prime ministership, and in the Rudd and Gillard governments, Swan was a critical internal figure, both factionally and holding frontline portfolios.

He nominates the economic stimulus package which kept Australia out of recession during the global financial crisis as his most significant achievement in office.

Swan is also a prostate cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with the disease in his 40s, and has been active in raising public awareness and in advocacy, and supporting other men with the illness.

Swan left the Labor frontbench after Kevin Rudd replaced Julia Gillard as Labor leader before the 2013 election, and has remained on the backbench since.

Swan and Rudd – both Queenslanders from Nambour – were close during some periods during Labor’s time in office, but their personal relationship soured during the poisonous civil war between Gillard and Rudd which ultimately cost Labor government after two terms.

During Labor’s period in opposition, Swan has been a vocal activist on economic inequality, and a strident critic of the influence wielded by big business in public policy debates – a position heavily influenced by the stoush he had with corporates and lobby groups when Labor implemented the controversial mining tax.

He plans to continue this advocacy once he departs public life. “I intend to be involved with organisations inside and outside the labour movement, both nationally and globally, to argue for new ways of creating jobs and preventing the dangerous concentration of wealth and political power”.

“The Australian political genius has always been to avoid the inequalities and divisions that have poisoned societies and endangered democracies elsewhere in the world. I’ll be giving my all now as a private citizen to ensure Australia continues to avoid this fate”.

There has been some speculation that Swan may run for the national presidency of the ALP, but party sources suggest that tilt is highly unlikely, with the union official Tony Sheldon more likely to be the right’s candidate for that position.