When Mathias Cormann pulls up stumps from Parliament at the end of this year, he will take more than just the firepower out of the Finance portfolio. Cormann has been the driving force behind the push for a free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union since the Coalition was elected in 2013.

Those who take more than a passing interest in politics will remark that Cormann is not, and has never been, the trade minister. But without Cormann’s push for the economic and investment relationship between Australia and his homeland, we would not have real prospects of concluding the Australia-EU agreement in 2021.