A former Finance Minister has been awarded the highest Australia Day honour.

Secretary-General of the OECD Mathias Cormann AC says Australia is still as exciting as it was when he first made the decision to move here in 1996.

“The pandemic and the period of high inflation and all of that has obviously weighed on people in recent years … We have a lot going for ourselves, we are in the part of the world that is generating most global growth,” he told Michael McLaren.

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Image: Getty Images/Hannah McKay – WPA Pool