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Nicholas Frank Hugo Greiner (;) (born 27 April 1947) is an Australian politician who served as the 37th
Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislatur ...
from 1988 to 1992. Greiner was Leader of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party from 1983 to 1992 and
Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
from 1983 to 1988. Greiner had served as the Federal President of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2017 to 2020. He is the current Consul-General in the United States of America, New York.


Early life

Greiner was born in
Budapest, Hungary Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...
to a Hungarian father and a Slovak mother. His mother was of half-
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
ancestry and was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during the
Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. His parents subsequently moved to
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before arriving in Australia in the early 1950s. He was educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview in Sydney's lower North Shore, before graduating with honours in
Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...
at the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...
. Later he attended
Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...
and achieved an MBA with High Distinction. After briefly working for an
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...
timber company, Greiner returned to Australia, where he joined the timber company that his family owned. Greiner has also held the position of Australian chairman of
British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the lar ...
.


Political career

A member of the Liberal Party, Greiner unsuccessfully sought to enter the
New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...
for the safe Liberal seat of Willoughby in 1978. He defeated sitting member Laurie McGinty for Liberal preselection. Although defeated in his first bid to enter the legislature by local bus driver Eddie Britt as part of the "Wranslide" Labor victory that year (largely due to McGinty running as an independent), Greiner successfully contested a 1980
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...
for the electorate of
Ku-ring-gai Kuringgai (also spelled Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai, Kuriggai) (,) is an ethnonym referring to (a) an hypothesis regarding an aggregation of Indigenous Australian peoples occupying the territory between the southern borders of the Gamilar ...
. Greiner successfully defended Ku-ring-gai in the 1981 state election, managing a modest swing in his favour even as the Liberal- National Country
Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...
was cut down to only 28 seats in total. Shortly after the election, he ran for the party leadership, but lost to John Dowd. He was however appointed as Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Housing and Cooperatives. However, in 1983, Greiner ousted Dowd in a leadership challenge. Highlighting allegations of corruption against the Labor Party government of Premier Neville Wran during the 1984 election campaign, Greiner managed to pick up a seven percent swing and cut the Wran government's previously overwhelming majority in half, from 19 seats to eight. In the process, he regained much of what the Coalition had lost in the previous two "Wranslides." Wran retired in 1986, and was succeeded by Barrie Unsworth. In what proved to be a harbinger of things to come, the Liberals came within 54 votes of derailing Unsworth's bid to enter the lower house (he had previously been a member of the Legislative Council), and managed to take Wran's old seat on a large swing. At the March 1988 election, Greiner led the Coalition to a landslide victory. The Coalition scored a swing of over 8 percent and took 22 seats from Labor, including several Labor heartland seats where the Coalition had not come close to winning in years.


Premier of New South Wales

Greiner handed over a number of responsibilities previously associated with the Premier's Department to other ministers. However, in a rare move, he served as his own
Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury ...
(having retained the Shadow Treasurer's portfolio upon becoming party leader), thus concentrating considerable power in his hands. He decided to keep the Treasurer's post for himself in order to focus on repairing the State's parlous financial position. The Greiner government, which promised "sensible, moderate but progressive" government, wasted no time in commencing its legislative agenda, announcing across-the-board spending cuts and plans to announce a mini-budget in June. A key government policy was to cut costs in education, including increasing charges for public education, eliminating free public transport for school students and reducing teaching staff (2,400 teaching staff and 800 support staff) through creating composite classes and closing smaller schools, while looking for public assets to sell (ultimately $340 million of assets were identified) and capital works projects which could be abandoned. However, it was forced to defer its plans to repeal Aboriginal land rights legislation (an election commitment) and reduce the power of the Ombudsman to investigate the police when Democrat and
Call to Australia The Christian Democratic Party (CDP) was a Christian democratic political party in Australia, founded in 1977, under the name Call to Australia Party, by a group of Christian ministers in New South Wales. One of the co-founders, Fred Nile, a ...
members of the Upper House combined with Labor to defeat these pieces of legislation. By September 1988, having promised at the election to run the state like a business, the government were able to announce serious progress towards reducing the state debt and its first budget projected a surplus, and were trying to resolve housing pressures caused by rapidly increasing house prices (which rose from $65,000 to $165,000 in the twelve months to October). Another election promise realised by the new Government was to create the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) capable of investigating allegations of corruption and graft against the government and within the state. In its first year, it investigated large donations to the Labor and National parties. Despite significant pressure from the parliamentary Nationals, whose leader was implicated in one of the investigations, Greiner refused to budge or to dilute ICAC's powers. By 1989, the government's position could be described as higher government charges and reduced government services. Increased taxes and fees on motor vehicle drivers, petrol, water, public transport and child care, as the aforementioned cuts to education took effect, the pay of health workers was frozen, workers' compensation to injured workers was limited (although this was later blocked by the Upper House) and state assets were sold off. A series of strikes on the part of teachers and the growing unpopularity of Education Minister
Terry Metherell Terry Alan Metherell (born 9 January 1947) is a former Australian politician who represented the Electoral district of Davidson in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1981 to 1992. When the Liberal Party won the 1988 election, Premie ...
caused problems for the Greiner government during the latter stages of its first term. In August 1989, the Industrial Commission ruled against the government in determining that class sizes were an industrial issue rather than the sole discretion of the Director-General. The government also cut rail services to the north coast, deeming them commercially unviable, and cut 8,000 State Rail Authority employees in an effort to offset the authority's $1 billion annual debt – however, this left the Pacific Highway as the only land transport link for several major towns, and in October and December 1989, two major crashes on the road, both involving passenger buses, claimed a combined total of 54 deaths and 55 injuries. While Opposition Leader Bob Carr made the link between pressure on roads and withdrawal of the country services, a coroner's report in April 1990 pinned the blame on the Federal Government and its "piecemeal" approach to repairs of the Pacific Highway. The government meanwhile reduced speed limits for heavy vehicles to 90 km/h after the accidents, but a work-to-rule campaign by the Transport Workers Union disrupted Sydney's peak-hour traffic and Greiner overrode the Transport Minister to restore the previous 100 km/h limit in late January 1990. In May 1990, Greiner asked Metherell to try and resolve the ongoing battle with the State's teachers, and they were offered a 9% pay rise, although the disputes continued. Lecturers in the
TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...
system, also within Metherell's portfolio, joined them after the government indicated its willingness to implement a report by a private management consultant envisaging a public-private partnership and massive staffing cuts. Metherell resigned from his position in 1990 but the disputes with teachers continued. Regarded as a fiscal conservative, Greiner was still considered much further to the left than many of his fellow Liberals in terms of
social policy Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...
. He criticised then Federal Opposition Leader
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the ...
's controversial comments on
immigration policy Border control refers to measures taken by governments to monitor and regulate the movement of people, animals, and goods across land, air, and maritime borders. While border control is typically associated with international borders, it a ...
during the late 1980s, and was widely respected within the ethnic community. Buoyed by his government's strong performance in the polls, Greiner called a snap election for 25 May 1991. Despite widespread predictions by political and media commentators that Greiner would be easily re-elected to a second term, the impact of the Government's policies, particularly in terms of service cuts and increased charges, caused many voters to turn back to Labor.
The election ''The Election'' () is a political drama series produced by Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV). With a budget of HK$15 million, filming started in July 2014 and wrapped up on 28 October 2014. Popularly voted to be the inaugural drama of ...
saw the Coalition win 52 percent of the two-party vote. However, much of the Coalition margin was wasted on landslide margins in its heartland, while Labor took back many marginal seats it had lost in its severe defeat of three years prior. The result was a
hung Parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...
, with the Coalition one seat short of a majority. Greiner was forced into a minority government, relying on support from four
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...
MPs. His parliamentary majority was further eroded with the decision of Terry Metherell to become an Independent in late 1991, and with the loss of The Entrance in a 1992 by-election following a Court of Disputed Returns overthrowing the original result. Greiner was only the second head of government at either federal or state level in Australia who was born outside the
Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the C ...
, the first being
Chris Watson John Christian Watson (born Johan Cristian Tanck; 9 April 186718 November 1941) was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia, in office from 27 April to 18 August 1904. He served as the inaugural federal lea ...
,
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
in 1904.


ICAC investigation and resignation

Greiner and Environment Minister Tim Moore decided to offer Liberal-turned-independent MP
Terry Metherell Terry Alan Metherell (born 9 January 1947) is a former Australian politician who represented the Electoral district of Davidson in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1981 to 1992. When the Liberal Party won the 1988 election, Premie ...
an executive position in the Environmental Protection Authority. If Metherell accepted the position, he would have to resign his parliamentary seat, which the Liberal Party was confident of winning in a by-election. While Metherell initially agreed to the position on 10 April 1992, it was criticised by Labor and the independents, and documents were ultimately released showing he had applied for a job in the Premier's Department and then been seconded to the EPA, and had applied after the closing date, but was appointed within hours of his application. Greiner was accused of misleading the parliament, and in late April, Labor and the independents passed a no-confidence motion in Greiner's leadership (though, critically, not against the government) in the Legislative Assembly. The pressure led to Greiner moving that the Assembly refer the matter to ICAC. The inquiry began on 5 May, and following detailed evidence by Metherell that his resignation was part of a package negotiated with Greiner and Moore and the release of Metherell's diaries, Greiner and backbencher
Brad Hazzard Bradley Ronald "Brad" Hazzard (born 30 August 1951), an Australian politician, has been the New South Wales Minister for Health since January 2017 in the Berejiklian and Perrottet ministries. Hazzard is a member of the New South Wales Legisla ...
admitted their statements to the inquiry were wrong. Greiner as a witness could not recall 20 key events under investigation, and the inquiry heard that the director-general appointed Metherell when it was discovered he could not legally be appointed to the EPA. On 19 June, ICAC commissioner
Ian Temby Ian Douglas Temby (born 5 May 1942) is an Australian barrister. He was the first Director of Public Prosecutions (Australia), Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the first Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corrupt ...
concluded that while Greiner had not acted criminally and had not set out to be corrupt, he would be seen "by a notional jury as conducting himself contrary to known and recognised standards of honesty and integrity". Temby found strongest against Environment Minister Tim Moore, a friend of Metherell's who was central to the offer. However, the Commission did not recommend taking action against the two ministers, saying that this was properly the role of Parliament. Greiner focused on the words "honesty and integrity" and argued he was only "technically corrupt", but by 21 June, it was clear the independents would support a vote of no confidence in Greiner and Moore. Greiner lodged a case with New South Wales Court of Appeal and argued any such motions would breach natural justice while the appeal was being heard, but Labor and the independents argued that the Parliament was the body which should decide Greiner's future. Labor tabled a no-confidence motion, which was due up for vote on 24 June. The independents told Greiner that unless he resigned, they would withdraw their support from the government and support the no-confidence motion. Accordingly, Greiner resigned, and was succeeded by John Fahey. Greiner successfully appealed against the finding in the New South Wales Court of Appeal, which in a 2-1 vote on 21 August 1992 overturned the ICAC findings. The court found that ICAC had "exceeded its jurisdiction" in ruling against the two ministers and granted "declaratory relief that the Commission's report was wrong in law". Following the affair, a parliamentary committee inquiring into ICAC's powers in December 1992 recommended that Section 9 of the ICAC Act, on which the successful appeal was based, should be repealed as it was too narrow in defining corrupt conduct. While the section was not repealed, a sub-section was ultimately added in 1994 which addressed the behaviour of ministers and members of parliament, and gave legislative enforcement to ministerial and parliamentary codes of conduct.


Subsequent career

In 1994 Greiner was made a Companion of the Order of Australia "for (his) service to public sector reform and management and to the community." In 2001, he received the Centenary Medal. He went on to hold directorships with many of Australia's leading companies. Greiner was chairman of the board of WD&HO Wills and then British American Tobacco Australia for the period 1996 to 2004. In 2011, he was Chairman of Bradken, Citigroup Australia, The Nuance Group, QBE Lenders' Mortgage Insurance, Blue Star Print Group and Playup; and Deputy Chairman of CHAMP Private Equity. In May 2011, Greiner was appointed as Chairman of Infrastructure NSW by the O'Farrell government. He also served as Chairman of the European Australian Business Council. , his website listed him as having held positions, mostly as chairman or deputy chairman, with: * QBE Emerging Markets * Accolade Wines *Rearden Capital *CHAMP Private Equity * Rothschild Australia *
Crosby Textor Group The C, T Group, also referred to as Crosby Textor, is an Australian lobbying firm, and political consultancy. The firm provides social research, corporate strategy and political polling services to its clients. The firm is historically been ...
* Transurban (adviser) * Harper & Row (Australasia) * Coles Myer Ltd. * Stockland Trust * Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine In the few years after leaving State politics, Greiner had been touted for a tilt at Federal politics including the prospect of replacing Alexander Downer as Federal Liberal Leader and becoming Prime Minister by leading the Coalition to victory at the 1996 Federal election but none of this eventuated. He contributed in many roles to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and Australian sport. He was President of the Bid Company, Director of the Organising Committee, and President of Squash and Soccer. He was Federal President of the Liberal Party from 2017-2020. In February 2021 he became Consul-General for Australia in New York and the North-East United States.


Personal

Greiner was married to Kathryn Greiner , a former Councillor in the Sydney City Council, and daughter of Sir Bede Callaghan (a former Chairman of the
Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busine ...
and Chancellor of University of Newcastle). They separated in 1995, then reconciled in 1996. In October 2013 it was announced that they had again separated. The couple have one son and one daughter. He is currently in a relationship with Carolyn Fletcher. The two each have six grandchildren.


References


Further reading

* *   {{DEFAULTSORT:Greiner, Nick 1947 births Living people Australian people of Slovak descent Australian people of Slovak-Jewish descent Australian republicans Companions of the Order of Australia Hungarian emigrants to Australia Hungarian people of Jewish descent Hungarian people of Slovak descent Leaders of the Opposition in New South Wales Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Premiers of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Naturalised citizens of Australia Republic Advisory Committee Spouses of Australian politicians Treasurers of New South Wales Harvard Business School alumni People educated at St Aloysius' College (Sydney) People educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview University of Sydney alumni Consuls-General of Australia in New York Politicians from Budapest