Despite being one of the Coalition’s most famed numbers men, even Mathias Cormann could not have calculated how grand his Australian journey would be after arriving as a fresh-faced law graduate from Belgium 30 years ago.
Cormann’s career took him to the highest political offices in the land, and then back to Europe as secretary of the OECD in Paris. Now that remarkable journey has earned him the highest Australia Day honour – being made a Companion of the Order of Australia.
“Receiving this recognition from my country, I feel a real sense of pride. It’s a very special moment,” Cormann told this masthead while he was travelling back to the country to accept the award this weekend.
“I would never have anticipated [30 years ago] what lay ahead.
“Australia is a wonderful country, Perth is an amazing place to live. I’m immensely grateful for all the many opportunities Australia has given me over the years to contribute.
“I can honestly say that I have always given it my everything to make the best possible contribution.”
He was appointed a Companion “for eminent service to the people and Parliament of Australia, to the implementation of government reform, to multilateral affairs and to international economic development”.
The licensed pilot and German-speaking Cormann worked as a political staffer for various Coalition ministers during the late 1990s and early 2000s, including former WA premier Richard Court, before he spent five years at WA health insurer HBF.
He replaced retiring WA senator Ian Campbell for the Liberal Party in 2007 and was re-elected in 2010 and 2016 before he resigned in late 2020 to take on the role at the OECD.
It was his role as finance minister from 2013 up to his retirement that he will be most remembered for in Australian politics – but Cormann is bashful when asked to pick a highlight.
“Public service through politics is very much a team game. So, I don’t really want to claim any achievement in parliament as a personal achievement,” he said.
“But I do feel satisfied that I had an impact, that as a senator I was a strong voice for WA and that both from opposition and as a minister I contributed to good government for Australia to the best of my ability.
“If I had to point to something specific, I would say that I feel satisfied that during more than seven years as finance minister I made a real contribution to economic policy, to fiscal repair and to fiscal discipline, which put Australia in a stronger more resilient position to deal with and recover from the economic and fiscal impacts of the COVID pandemic.”
Cormann’s new role at the OECD required a clean break from his connections to partisan politics, but he said working at that global level he’s still involved in politics – just in the “small ‘p’ context”.
“While I’m in a non-partisan position working with governments of different political persuasions, I continue to have the opportunity to help shape economic and fiscal policy and public policy more generally,” he said.
“And I continue to engage with governments on a daily basis, across the OECD, our global relations engagement and as part of the G7, G20 and APEC for example which I continue to attend.
“So in many ways I haven’t really left politics behind. I feel very lucky with what I’ve been able to do and continue to have the opportunity to do.”
Cormann is married to Hayley Cormann, a WA district court judge, and they have two daughters together, Isabelle and Charlotte.
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Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political reporter and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Prize for best political journalism.Connect via Twitter or email.
