Adrian Piccoli (; born 24 March 1970) is a former Australian politician who represented the electoral district of Murray in 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 House ...

from 2015 to 2017, and the district of Murrumbidgee from 1999 to 2015. He was the

deputy leader A deputy leader (in Scottish English, sometimes depute leader) in the Westminster system is the second-in-command of a political party, behind the party leader. Deputy leaders often become Deputy prime minister when their parties are elected to go ...

of the Nationals in the New South Wales Parliament from 2008 to 2016. Piccoli served as the Minister for Education between April 2011 and January 2017, in both the O'Farrell and Baird ministries.

Personal life

Of Italian descent, Piccoli was born in

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. He completed a

Bachelor of Economics A Bachelor of Economics (BEc or BEcon)Bureau of Labor StatisticsHow to Become an Economist/ref> is an academic degree, awarded to students who have completed specialised undergraduate studies in economics. Variants include the "Bachelor of Econo ...

and a

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at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

in 1993. Prior to starting his political career, Piccoli worked as an irrigation rice farmer and solicitor. He is married, has two children, and is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Political career

Piccoli has represented Murrumbidgee for the Nationals since the 1999 state election. In 2008 he became the deputy leader of the National Party in the NSW Parliament. He was included in the Shadow Ministry of the O'Farrell/Stoner Liberal/Nationals Coalition. Following the

Coalition A coalition is 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, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

victory in the 2011 New South Wales election, Piccoli was chosen by

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Barry O'Farrell Barry Robert O'Farrell (born 24 May 1959) is an Australian former politician who was Australia's List of Australian High Commissioners to India, High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan from February 2020 to 30 June 202 ...

and Nationals Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner to be part of their cabinet as the Minister for Education. When Deputy Premier and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner announced his resignation in 2014, Piccoli as Stoner's deputy was expected to stand as a candidate to succeed him as Nationals leader but chose not to nominate for the leadership and instead remained deputy to new leader Troy Grant. It is believed that Piccoli did not have the numbers to beat Grant for the leadership, despite Grant's political inexperience. Stoner had endorsed Grant over Piccoli as his successor. In 2016 Grant resigned as Deputy Premier and Nationals leader but Piccoli again did not stand for the leadership and instead stood down as deputy leader. Piccoli has promoted an educational reform called "Local Schools, Local Decisions" to give state schools more authority. Following a January 2017 reshuffle of the Berejiklian ministry, Piccoli was not appointed to the new ministry and issued a statement that he had ruled out resigning from politics before the next election.

Ethics classes

Ethics classes were introduced by the Keneally

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

government as an alternative for children who did not want to attend traditional scripture classes. Prior to the 2011 state election,

made a pre-election pledge of not scrapping the ethics classes. Following the election,

Fred Nile Frederick John Nile (born 15 September 1934) is an Australian former politician and Ordination, ordained Minister (Christianity), Christian minister. Nile was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1981-2023, except for a perio ...

, who was vehemently opposed to the ethics classes, introduced a

private members bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

proposing the abolition of the classes, arguing that the ethics course is based on a philosophy linked to Nazism and communism.

Mike Baird Michael Bruce Baird (born 1 April 1968) is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, Mini ...

's coalition government won the 2015 state election, promising to lease parts of the electricity grid to private operators, while Fred Nile held the balance of power in the upper house. While negotiating the lease of the electricity grid, Mike Baird announced changes to scripture enrolment forms, with the availability of ethics classes removed from forms sent to parents. The existence of ethics classes would only be made known to parents in a secondary form if they had chosen no scripture classes. The form would also remove the "no" box that allows parents to opt out of scripture classes for their children, making them tick no box. The changes were described as 'misleading and deceptive' by Anglican minister John Dickson. Adrian Piccoli's department blocked access to the chairman of Primary Ethics, despite holding meetings with faith-based lobby groups. The government made the enrolment process more complex in 2016, requiring parents to fill in multiple forms before being made aware that ethics classes are an option.

Resignation

On 4 September 2017, Piccoli announced he was resigning from parliament to accept a position at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

. He resigned on 15 September, triggering a by-election in his seat of Murray.

Later career

Piccoli is now the director of the Gonski Institute for Education at UNSW, and Professor of Practice in the School of Education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piccoli, Adrian 1970 births Living people Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Australian National University alumni People from Griffith, New South Wales Australian politicians of Italian descent 21st-century Australian politicians Ministers for education (New South Wales)