Representative Michael McCormack Contact information

Michael Francis McCormack is an Australian politician who served as the 18th deputy prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2021 under Prime Ministers Malcolm Turnbull and later Scott Morrison. McCormack has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2010, representing the Division of Riverina in New South Wales. Before entering politics, McCormack was a newspaper editor.

McCormack was born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales as one of five children born to Eileen Margaret (née Margosis; 1938–2018) and Lance McCormack (d. 2008), a dryland farmer. His maternal grandfather, George Peter Margosis, was born in 1896 in Akrata, Greece. McCormack grew up on the family farms in nearby Marrar and Brucedale, attended St Michael’s Regional High School and Trinity Senior High School (later merged into Kildare Catholic College). After leaving school, McCormack took up a cadetship at The Daily Advertiser, the local daily newspaper. He was appointed editor of the paper in 1991, aged 27, making him reputedly the “youngest newspaper editor in Australia”. McCormack was sacked from The Daily Advertiser in February 2002, subsequently starting his own media and publishing company, MSS Media Services and Solutions. He also served as a director of the Murrumbidgee Turf Club from 1994 to 2003, as well as its official historian.

McCormack was campaign director for Kay Hull, the Nationals MP for Riverina, at the 2004 and 2007 federal elections. Hull announced her retirement from politics in April 2010, and McCormack subsequently won preselection for her seat at the 2010 election. After the Coalition won the 2013 election, McCormack was made parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann. In September 2015, he was appointed Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, Warren Truss, and in February 2016, he became Assistant Minister for Defence under Marise Payne.

In July 2016, after the 2016 election, McCormack was appointed Minister for Small Business. In December 2017, McCormack was made Minister for Defence Personnel, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC. Following the resignation of Barnaby Joyce in February 2018, McCormack announced that he would contest the resulting leadership vote. He succeeded Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and replaced Joyce as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. After the Coalition won the 2019 federal election, McCormack was re-elected party leader unopposed. On 4 February 2020, Joyce unsuccessfully challenged McCormack as leader of the Nationals. McCormack was removed as party leader on 21 June 2021 in a National Party leadership spill, with Joyce taking over as leader and McCormack returning to the backbench.

McCormack is married to Catherine Shaw and has three children.