London: Mathias Cormann has been elected the next secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in a major strategic coup for the Australian government that also catapults the former finance minister onto the world stage.
Cormann was on Friday named the winner of the six-month contest, which pitted him against nine other candidates from around the world for the top international post.
Mathias Cormann, Australia’s longest-serving finance minister, will become the next secretary-general of the Paris-based OECD.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The race had come down to the ex-senator and former European Union trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who for much of the time had been the favourite to win.
However, a deft lobbying campaign mounted by Cormann, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia’s network of ambassadors and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra rallied enough support from the OECD’s 38 member countries to snare victory.
One observer said the final round of consultations to determine a winner was “intense” and Australian officials were braced for the result to go either way.
Consultations earlier this week had failed to determine whether Cormann or Malmstrom had enough support. A new ballot was held on Friday morning Paris-time and Cormann was successful.
A formal announcement will be made by the OECD later on Friday.
The West Australian will take the helm at the influential Paris-based economic body on June 1.
Cormann, a Liberal Party power broker and Australia’s longest-serving finance minister, left the Senate in October to run for the job and travelled around Europe, Asia, South America and North America to rally support.
His use of a Royal Australian Air Force Falcon jet for some of the lobbying blitz angered Labor, which gave bipartisan backing to his bid.
The position will give the former Western Australia senator serious influence over the world’s post-pandemic economic recovery and carriage of negotiations over a global accord for a new tax on multinational tech giants.
The tax could reap up to $135 billion in extra revenue for 137 governments. World leaders asked the OECD to design the new tax to prevent America launching a trade war against countries that planned to go it alone in the quest to get a fairer share of tax from US-based Silicon Valley firms.
Cormann was elected despite a determined campaign by environmentalists to have his candidacy rejected over the Coalition government’s record on climate change and emissions reduction.
Cormann has never denied the science of climate change but has questioned the best way to lower emissions.
In lobbying OECD members, Cormann said achieving global net-zero emissions by 2050 required an “urgent and major international effort”. He said the OECD had a role to play “to help countries around the world achieve global net-zero emissions by 2050″.
His five-year posting will be the first time someone from the Asia-Pacific region has led the OECD but the rejection of Malmstrom means it will not gain its first female leader.
The OECD emerged from the post-war Marshall Plan and plays a key role in shaping the international economic agenda. Its members represent more than 60 per cent of global GDP and must be committed to democracy and a free market.
Headquartered in a sprawling compound in central Paris, it has an annual budget of €386 million ($625 million), a staff of more than 3500 and a seat at G20 meetings.
Cormann, who was born in Belgium and is fluent in German, French and Flemish, pitched himself as a bridge between Europe’s traditional economies and the increasingly important Asia-Pacific markets. He spent 25 years in Europe before moving to Australia in 1996.
Malmstrom was the EU trade commissioner between 2014 and 2019 and spent four years before that as the commissioner for home affairs.
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Bevan Shields is the Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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2021-03-12 12:42:52Z
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