Just a fortnight into Mathias Cormann’s global campaign to head an international economic body, the former finance minister has clocked up more than 20,000 kilometres on a taxpayer-funded Royal Australian Air Force plane.
Mr Cormann is no longer on the taxpayer purse for his income but he’s being given Government jet-propelled support to become the next Secretary-General of the European-dominated Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
His bid to become the first Australian to head the Paris-based organisation began on November 7-8 with a Canberra-Perth-Muscat leg that included a refuelling stopover in the Maldives.
The RAAF Dassault 7X then flew to Ankara, Turkey, where Mr Cormann began his lobbying in earnest.
Turkey is one of the OECD’s 37 member countries.
From Ankara, Mr Cormann flew five hours north to Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the 19 founding members of the OECD in 1960.
The French, German, Flemish and English speaker had dubbed the OECD one of the most consequential governing bodies in the world, particularly as the world seeks to recover from the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
“These are big challenges and I have accepted this nomination because I believe I canmake a real difference,” he said when his candidacy was announced.
The OECD Secretary-General’s job comes with a Euro 232,626 tax-free salary, or the equivalent of $376,900.
On November 12, it was off to Berlin, where Mr Cormann could lobby in a familiar tongue, with Australia’s Ambassador to Germany snapping a photograph of Mr Cormann manning a barbecue during his stopover.
“A bit of downtime over the weekend amid [Mathias Cormann’s] busy visit to Berlin,” Ambassador Philip Green tweeted.
“Time for a BBQ, including Thuringia sausages. Mr Cormann at the tongs, straddling Australian and German culture.”
The ex-WA senator grew up in a German-speaking region of Belgium.
Three days later, he was off to Bern, Switzerland, for another three days of campaigning. His diplomatic speed-dating then took him to Ljubljana in Slovenia and then Luxembourg, via Bern.
On November 21, Mr Cormann arrived in Brussels where he once worked as an assistant to Mathieu Grosch, a Belgian Member of the European Parliament. Brussels is 130km from Eupen where Mr Cormann was born.
Mr Cormann flew from Brussels to Madrid, Spain, taking his two-week travel tally to 21,360km. His plane remains there today.
Defence records show flying the RAAF plane costs more than $4,000 per hour of flying.
The ABC has contacted the Department of Defence for comment.
Source: ABC News.
