Mathias Cormann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mathias Hubert Paul Cormann (born 20 September 1970) is an Australian politician. He is a Liberal Party of Australia Senator for Western Australia, having been chosen by the Parliament of Western Australia on 19 June 2007 to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Ian Campbell.
Born in Eupen, Belgium, Cormann migrated to Perth, Western Australia in 1996, and with his Belgian law degree not recognised in Australia, took a job as a gardener at Presbyterian Ladies' College. After joining the Liberal Party, he was offered a job as ministerial chief-of-staff, then senior adviser to then-Premier of Western Australia, Richard Court. He then moved to federal politics, working for two years as a senior adviser to the Minister for Justice and Customs Chris Ellison. Since 2003, Cormann has been senior vice-president of the Liberal Party. He was also acting general manager of HBF, a WA-based health insurance company, until resigning in May 2007 to contest a Senate seat.
Cormann's preselection for the coveted third position on the Liberal Senate ticket for the 2007 election was all but assured, at the expense of controversial Senator Ross Lightfoot, who withdrew from the preselection race and resigned from politics when he realised the numbers were against him. 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.[1] Lightfoot, however, gave no substantial reasons why he thought Cormann was unsuitable.
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. Campbell formally resigned on 31 May 2007. Cormann was sworn in on 20 June 2007 and will serve the remaining four years of Ian Campbell's term until 2011.[2]
Cormann is the Organisational Patron of the Western Australian Young Liberals, Federal Patron of the University of Western Australia University Liberal Club and Vice Patron of the ECU University Liberal Club. He is a Gold Friend of the Young Liberal Movement of Western Australia.
Senator Cormann is a keen flyer and has a light aircraft licence and is also a member of the Royal Aero Club.
[edit] References
- ^ Carmody, Rebecca: Controversial Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot calls it a day, Stateline (Western Australia), 27 April 2007.
- ^ O'Brien, Amanda: Ex-gardener lands Senate spot, The Australian, 7 May 2007. Retrieved on 2007-05-07.
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

