Politics · Australia · 4 hrs ago
Cormann urges major economic reforms to counter populist parties
Mathias Cormann, a former Australian finance minister who now leads the OECD, is urging major parties to reform the economy.
He is set to make the case in a speech in Brisbane on Saturday, warning that copying populist policies could push voters further towards those parties.
He says mainstream parties have lost support partly because they have not improved living standards.
Cormann traces the decline in appetite for reform to 2005, when mining-boom income made it easier for governments to avoid difficult choices.
His proposals include changing taxes and allowing more homes to be built near public transport.
He also argues for lower company tax and replacing state stamp duties with land and property taxes.
He says reforms are needed to lift living standards and counter populist movements such as One Nation.
Mathias Cormann will warn that mainstream parties risk losing voters if they copy populist policies instead of improving living standards through economic reform.
The former Australian finance minister and current OECD head is due to deliver the warning in a speech in Brisbane on Saturday.
He will call for reforms to tax, housing and migration policy, including a higher and broader GST and more housing supply.
Cormann will argue that the decline in support for reform began around 2005, when a mining boom made it easier for parties to avoid difficult decisions.
He will say the appetite for reform faded across politics, business and the union movement.
- Who
- Mathias Cormann, former Australian finance minister and current head of the OECD.
- What
- He will urge major parties to pursue economic reforms rather than copy populist policies.
- When
- He is due to give the speech on Saturday; the articles were published on October 16, 2026.
- Where
- Brisbane, Australia.
- Why
- Cormann argues that failure to improve living standards through necessary reforms has helped increase support for populist movements.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Cormann dates the decline in Australia’s appetite for reform to the year of the mining boom under prime minister John Howard.
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg warned that the Liberal Party must reconnect with the political centre.
Cormann is due to deliver a speech in Brisbane outlining his reform agenda.
- Speaker
- Mathias Cormann
- Current role
- Head of the OECD
- Speech location
- Brisbane
- Proposed GST change
- Increase and broaden the GST
- Reform starting point
- 2005
- Housing proposal
- Allow medium-density housing near every rail and major bus line in capital cities
3 sources
What people are saying
Mainstream parties that respond to a populist surge by adopting its economics do not recover their voters. They lose twice: once to the original, which the electorate will always prefer to the copy, and once to the centre, which has nowhere else to go.
The parties that have held their ground did so by out-performing the populists, not by imitating them.
This was not one side’s failure. The appetite for reform faded across the political divide, in business and in the union movement as much as in parliament.
When times feel good, because a boom is hiding a slow drift, the public sees no reason to accept that bargain. Politicians who propose it are punished for solving a problem nobody can yet see or feel.