'Unsung hero' Mathias Cormann may be the Turnbull government's best asset

Mathias Cormann's stint as acting prime minister last month might have been something of a non-event, but it was noticed in Europe. Newspapers in his country of birth, Belgium, heralded the local boy who had moved Down Under with almost no English, while one London publication fawningly identified him as the "Belgian muscleman" and "telegenic lawyer" running Australia.

Fast forward a month and Cormann is again centre stage, negotiating passage of the Turnbull government's centrepiece policy pledge: cutting the company tax rate to 25 per cent. Success, which seems all but inevitable in the next 24 hours, would be the government's biggest coup in the unpredictable Senate to date.

"Cormann is the unsung hero of this government," Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger said this week. "If he gets this through, it’s another massive feather in his cap."

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has led the Senate negotiations.

Photo: Jamila Toderas

According to Cormann's colleagues, there's no better person for the job. They universally praise him as relentless, calm and patient, which is necessary when dealing with the motley crew of crossbenchers coughed up by the upper house. He is also unflappable, something evident to any journalist who has ever attended a Cormann press conference and tried to get him off-message.

"He can sometimes appear matter-of-fact," says Attorney-General Christian Porter, a Western Australian colleague of Cormann's. "But at his core he is a very, very patient person. And he is able to understand individuals and tailor the type of patience he needs cater to people of different backgrounds and experiences and strengths."

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