Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, one of the Federal Government’s most senior voices, has announced he will leave politics in the coming months, making way for a Cabinet reshuffle before the end of the year.
Key points:
- Mathias Cormann will leave politics by the end of the year
- He has been Finance Minister since the Coalition came to power in 2013
- Senator Cormann has been the Coalition’s chief Senate crossbench negotiator
Senator Cormann is the Government’s chief negotiator in the Upper House.
The West Australian senator was elected in 2007. He has served as the nation’s Finance Minister for seven years, under three Liberal prime ministers.
Senator Cormann confirmed he intended to resign within the next six months, but said he would remain in the job to finalise the Government’s July economic statement and the federal budget, to be handed down in October.
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He said if he continued in Parliament beyond the end of the year he would have been “honour bound” to contest the next election.
“My view was that if I continued on beyond this year then I was honour bound, duty bound, to go to the next election,” he said.
“I had made a decision not to contest the next election and as such I feel that this is the most appropriate time to manage an orderly transition.”
The long-serving Finance Minister will leave Government as Australia deals with its first recession in nearly 30 years.
“I was there with my colleagues doing everything that needed to be done in the middle of the crisis,” he said.
“I will be there to help guide our Government and Australia out of this crisis, and I will be there to help set the plan and the trajectory for the future.
“But then there will be other very talented people who will take over the baton and run with it.”
Cormann a consistent voice in Cabinet
The Belgian-born 49-year-old became an Australian citizen in 2000 and was a ministerial chief of staff and senior adviser to the premier in the West Australian government before he moved into federal politics.
He joined the Senate in 2007 and was promoted to the Coalition’s Opposition frontbench in 2008.
Senator Cormann is the only Cabinet minister to hold the same portfolio he did when the Coalition entered government in 2013.
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Speculation Senator Cormann was considering his future had circulated for some time, and in a statement today he confirmed he intended to resign within the next six months.
As a close friend of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, he came under sustained criticism from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, after supporting Mr Dutton’s push for leadership change in 2018.
Senator Cormann had a brief stint on the backbench during the leadership chaos, after he and fellow frontbenchers Michaelia Cash and Mitch Fifield withdrew their support for Mr Turnbull.
The press conference they gave was interpreted as a fatal blow to Mr Turnbull losing his job as Liberal leader.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg wrote on Twitter that Senator Cormann had been “a tower of strength for the Coalition”.
“As Australia’s longest-serving finance minister, he’s strengthened our economy, preparing it for the challenges we now face.”
Labor Senate leader Penny Wong called Senator Cormann a “formidable opponent and trusted counterpart” in the red chamber.
“Our politics differ, but we share a love of country, a belief in our institutions and a respect for one another,” she said on Twitter.
“My best wishes to him and to Hayley, Isabelle and Charlotte.”
