Official Website of Peter Costello

Public Office

Peter Costello was elected a Member of the Australian House of Representatives for the seat of Higgins in metropolitan Melbourne for seven consecutive terms between 1990 and 2009.

He was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in May 1994 and served in that post to November 2007 when he voluntarily stood down.

Peter Costello was Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007, the longest serving Treasurer in Australia’s history.

Mr. Costello brought down twelve consecutive Federal Budgets, including ten surpluses. During that period, he eliminated Commonwealth Government debt in net terms.

As a result, Australia's Sovereign Credit Rating was upgraded twice to AAA.

Peter Costello introduced the largest tax reform in Australian history called: A New Tax System, which introduced GST, abolished seven taxes and reduced income, capital gains and company taxes.

Also as Treasurer he:

Re-designed financial supervision and established new prudential and consumer regulators;
Reformed and modernised Corporations law;
Established the Takeovers Panel to hear disputes over mergers and acquisitions;
Introduced inflation-targeting for monetary policy by agreement with the Reserve Bank Governor.

Mr Costello served on the Committee of the IMF, as a Governor of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank and as Chair of the G-20 Central Bankers and Finance Ministers group.

Post Public Office

After leaving Parliament Mr Costello served as Member and then Chairman of the Independent Advisory Board to the World Bank in Washington 2009-2014. He was Co-Chair of the Australia- China High Level dialogue. He has served on a number of domestic and International Advisory Boards and worked as an Advisor in the field of Mergers and Acquisitions, Competition and Foreign Investment law.

Mr Costello established Australia's Sovereign Wealth Fund - the Future Fund in 2006. The Fund is is invested in diverse asset classes. Mr Costello was Chair of the Future Fund from 2014 to 2024.

Mr Costello was Chairman of the Nine Entertainment Corporation from 2016 to 2024. NEC is a public company that is the largest Australian owned media company with businesses in Television, Radio, Print and Subscriber news, Streaming and online Real Estate.

In January 2011 Mr Costello was made a Companion (AC) in the Order of Australia.

His best-selling memoir was published in 2008 by Melbourne University Press.