Former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann refuses to comment on Clan and Liberal Party’s dismal election results

The man who spent years as the Clan’s most prominent figurehead has brushed off questions about whether the faction is to blame for the Liberal Party’s dismal performance at recent State and Federal elections. Former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said he was “not going to get into party political commentary” when approached by The West as he left a lunch event hosted by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. Mr Cormann – elected OECD Secretary-General following a 13-year career as a WA Senator – was last year revealed as the most high-profile member of the Clan, a group of Liberal powerbrokers who came to wield incredible control over the party. Thousands of leaked WhatsApp messages showed how Mr Cormann, along with State MPs Nick Goiran and Peter Collier, methodically coordinated the takeover of Liberal Party branches with the aim of ensuring their chosen candidates won both preselections and key office bearer roles – including installing immediate past president Fay Duda. While Mr Goiran and Mr Collier have faced repeated questioning over the Clan, Mr Cormann has largely escaped scrutiny after retiring from politics in 2020 and taking up the OECD role in mid-2021 – prior to the publication of the messages. After telling the AICCWA event he had no interest in ever returning to politics, Mr Cormann declined to comment on whether the Clan’s activities had been detrimental to the party. “I’m here on a holiday. I’m not going to get into party political commentary,” he said. He also would not provide his opinion on why the Liberals had fared so poorly in WA at the Federal election in May, when a 10.4 per cent swing away from the party resulted in the loss of five seats – four of those to Labor. “I think I just told you I’m not involved,” he said. “I last stood for election three years ago. I’m in a non-partisan position. I’m not a political commentator. I’m not into party political commentary.” Inside the event, Mr Cormann was asked whether he intended to return to Australia and public life when his five-year tenure as OECD Secretary-General was over. “Well, let me be very direct in answer to that,” he said. “Do I intend to come back to Australia? Yes. “Do I intend to go back into politics? No. I’ve been there, done that. I feel I’ve done my bit.” Later this month Mr Cormann will headline another ticketed lunch event for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA and he is also the star attraction at a July 28 cocktail function for advisory firm Poynton Stavrianou where he will “share his insights on geopolitics, the world economy and his work at the OECD”. A review commissioned by the WA Liberals in the wake of the disastrous 2021 state election found there was evidence of “unethical and underhand conduct by party members, including some MPs,” which had resulted in “the corruption of the essential mechanisms that guide and are intended to preserve the integrity of the party”. Prior to quitting politics, Mr Cormann publicly backed the decision of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene in support of Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer’s legal challenge against WA’s hard border policy. In an opinion piece published in The West in the midst of the controversial High Court challenge, Mr Cormann wrote that while border restrictions were justified for States experiencing active community transmission, banning travel from other jurisdictions was “not a proportionate response”. “Yes, we must prioritise public health… however, we must not gratuitously impose unnecessary and avoidable economic or social harm for no or very little public health upside.” Just three days later Mr Morrison revealed the Commonwealth was pulling out of the case, writing he did not wish to see COVID concerns “further exacerbated in Western Australia”. In the wake of the Coalition’s recent election loss, Senator Michaelia Cash highlighted the decision to intervene in the Palmer case as a key contributor to the Liberal’s poor showing in WA. She was also at pains to emphasise both she and ousted Tangney MP Ben Morton had lobbied against the intervention. Mr Cormann’s return to Perth coincides with what is being billed as the most important State Conference in the history of the WA Liberal Party at the end of July, where a vote will be held on introducing a plebiscite model for pre-selections. That would allow every Liberal member in the relevant electorate to cast a vote during preselections, a move designed to weaken the grasp of factions. The West understands Mr Cormann does not plan to attend the July 29 and 30 State Conference.