The project seeks to test Wayne Swan’s assertion to see if it is true, or just political posturing by the Labor Party.

The impetus for this project was that I was teaching a course on Australian politics. To spice things up a bit, I got each student to pick an issue they cared about, and to track their issue through the political decision making process. The students were tasked with identifying who attempted to influence the government decision on their issue and who ultimately prevailed.

I thought it would shake up some of the students doe eyed idealism a little bit. However even I was shocked when the students analysis concluded that big business prevailed in 13 of the 14 issues in which they had interests in play.