THE Treasurer, Wayne Swan, will intensify his assaults on the billionaires Clive Palmer, Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart tonight by accusing them of using the pillars of Australian democracy as personal playthings and seeking to expand the wealth divide by keeping more for themselves.

All while channelling rock icon Bruce Springsteen, who the Treasurer cites as his greatest inspiration and whom he credits with foretelling the decline of middle America as the economic foundations shifted, long before the economists.

In the John Button Memorial Lecture to be delivered in Melbourne, Mr Swan will say Springsteen's early albums, which were inspired by the decline of his native New Jersey, were relevant to Australia should Tony Abbott become the prime minister and govern for his billionaire friends. ''Don't let what has happened to the American economy happen here,'' his speech notes say.

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