Mathias Hubert Paul Cormann[2] (/məˈtiːəs ˈkɔːrmən/; German: [maˈtiːas ˈkɔʁman]; born 20 September 1970) is a Belgian-born Australian politician and diplomat who serves as Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), having assumed the office on 1 June 2021.

His tenure of more than seven years as Minister for Finance was the longest in Australian history, spanning the Abbott, Turnbull, and Morrison governments.

[7] Cormann retired from politics in October 2020 in order to be nominated by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as Australia's candidate for Secretary-General of the OECD.

When he was ten years old, his father spent six months in hospital with a severe illness that left him unable to work; he subsequently became an alcoholic but recovered.

[12][13] The family relied on a disability pension and assistance from the local Catholic church, where Cormann served as an altar boy.

[14] Cormann later undertook law graduate studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, attaining the degree of licentiate and learning Dutch.

[2][15] He learned English as a fourth language in 1993 while on an Erasmus Programme exchange to the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.

[14] He settled in Perth in July 1996, aged 25, initially working as a gardener at Presbyterian Ladies' College as his Belgian law degrees were not recognised.

[18] Cormann then cold-called Senator Chris Ellison, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on treaties, and asked to work in his office as a volunteer.

On the ABC's Stateline program on 27 April 2007, Lightfoot stated that he considered Cormann (although he stopped short of naming him) an "inappropriate person" to replace him.

[19] When Senator Ian Campbell unexpectedly announced his planned resignation on 4 May 2007, Cormann was quickly preselected by the party to fill the resulting casual vacancy.

When the Coalition won government in 2013, Cormann became the Finance Minister, a role which he held under Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.

Although he publicly supported Abbott in the 2015 leadership spill,[21] Cormann was promoted by Turnbull to take on the additional roles of Special Minister of State in 2016, and Leader of the Government in the Senate in 2017.

[26] During the leadership conflict, Cormann offered his resignation as Minister for Finance and Leader of the Government in the Senate, but resumed both roles in the first Morrison Ministry.

In early October 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Cormann would be nominated as a candidate for the next Secretary-General of the OECD.

[47] In March 2021, 29 Australian and global humanitarian and environmental organisations wrote to the OECD, citing "grave concerns"[48] and asking that Cormann be disqualified due to his record of "thwarting effective climate action".

[53] Sayers Group subsequently benefitted from a string of federal government contracts, adding up to a total of more than AU$10 million between November 2020 and December 2023.