Making Australia Slightly Better Than Average Again(TM): Rebuilding Our Common Wealth

Making Australia Slightly Better Than Average Again(TM) is Mark Swivel's soundbite manifesto and his quixotic Senate bid with The Together Party. Swivel argues our political class long ago detached from 'we the people' and has no real purpose beyond preserving itself. He advocates a new populism about making communities worth living in and a government that serves us and not the market. For Swivel the political question is always 'so, tell me how does this bring people together?' H wants Australia to be Slightly Better Than Average - more like the country he grew up that had free university education, a sane housing policy and we all seemed to be part of a national adventure. Swivel's injunctions, lively and passionate, to participate in politica are more resonant than ever as Australian democracy settles uneasily into its third term of conservative government. Praise for Making Australia Slightly Better Than Average Again(TM) "Disruption is everywhere except politics. Let's change that." This is Mark Swivel's message to all Australians in this immensely readable, very funny, yet insightful book. Read it and be inspired. What The Barefoot Investor did for personal finance, Swivel does for politics. - Colleen Ryan, Author and former editor of the Australian Financial Review With humour and insight, Mark Swivel skewers our political life: the dominance of corporatism and consumerism and the abandonment of the public sphere. Our politicians are so enthralled by vested interests, so absorbed in their own ambition they are unable to govern in Australia's long-term interest. Swivel rightly argues we all have a part to play in rebuilding and sustaining our Common Wealth. - Anne Cooombs, Activist, author and former chair of Get Up