Alex Greenwich

Alexander Hart Greenwich (born 28 November 1980) is the member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the seat of Sydney since the 2012 Sydney by-election. He ran as an independent and was backed by his predecessor, independent Clover Moore. He is also the Co-Chair of Australian Marriage Equality and was one of the key leaders of the successful YES campaign for the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey in 2017 and abortion legalization within New South Wales in 2019.

Alex Greenwich

MP
Member of the New South Wales Parliament
for Sydney
Assumed office
27 October 2012
Preceded byClover Moore
Majority61.77%
Personal details
Born
Alexander Hart Greenwich

(1980-11-28) 28 November 1980
Wellington, New Zealand
NationalityAustralian
Political partyIndependent
Spouse(s)Victor Hoeld
ResidenceDarlinghurst, New South Wales
Alma materUniversity of New South Wales
ProfessionAustralian politician

Early years and background

Greenwich was born in New Zealand to a Georgian father and American mother. His father, Victor Greenwich Dadianov (formerly the Honorary Consul-General of Georgia in Sydney, 2004–2013), was born Prince Victor Dadianov of the princely Georgian Dadiani family but his mother changed the name to Greenwich after they moved as refugees to New Zealand from Russia after the Second World War.[1] At the age of seven, Greenwich moved with his family to Sydney, Australia. From his family residence in Circular Quay, Greenwich was educated at Sydney Grammar School and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resource Management and Russian Studies at the University of New South Wales.[2] From 1 December 1998 to 1 December 2012, Greenwich was the Managing Director of his own recruiting agency, Winning Attitudes Recruitment.[3]

Personal life

Greenwich is the only openly gay male MP in the NSW Legislative Assembly. Before entering politics, Greenwich was a prominent LGBT rights activist and led Australian Marriage Equality.

Prior to running for office, Greenwich was from 2009 the national convener of Australian Marriage Equality and was named as one of Samesame.com.au's 25 most influential gay and lesbian Australians in 2010.[4] As national convener, Greenwich organised over 44,000 submissions to be made to the 2011 senate inquiry into same-sex marriage, and continues to be a prominent activist for achieving same-sex marriage reform in Australia.[4] In May 2012, Greenwich married his German long-term partner, Victor Hoeld in Argentina, where same-sex marriage is legal.[5]

Political career
Alex Greenwich MP outside the Australian Federal Parliament on the day of the vote

In July 2012, Greenwich aligned himself with prominent independent Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and announced his candidacy on Moore's ticket for the Sydney City Council elections scheduled for the NSW local government elections in September 2012.[6] This low (and therefore most likely unelectable) position on the ticket fuelled speculation that this was to increase Greenwich's visibility for a possible run to succeed Moore should she be forced to resign her state seat of Sydney in light of promised reforms by the O'Farrell Liberal/National government to ban MPs from serving on local government bodies.[7] This legislation was subsequently passed as the Local Government Amendment (Members of Parliament) Act, 2012 (NSW)[8] and following the local government elections in which Moore was re-elected for a third term as lord mayor, Moore resigned her seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, triggering a by-election.[9]

Greenwich subsequently contested the 2012 Sydney by-election as an independent with the endorsement of Moore, comfortably defeating Shayne Mallard of the Liberal Party with a 47.3 percent primary and 63.7 percent two-candidate preferred vote.[10] Greenwich said after the by-election that it was "very clear Barry O'Farrell's legislation has backfired – because now there are two of us".[11] Greenwich has denied claims that he is a single-issue politician,[12] having gone to the by-election on a platform involving a range of policy areas, including small business, the re-establishment of an inner-city public high school, and social welfare and public housing, among others.[13]

Greenwich introduced the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 into the New South Wales Legislative Assembly on 1 August 2019, in a bid to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales, allow abortions for up to 22 weeks, and permit an abortion after 22 weeks if two medical practitioners agree. The bill passed the parliament on 26 September and was assented on 2 October 2019 as the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019.[14]

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gollark: But all dragons with codes (all dragons, really) will produce offspring which also have codes.
gollark: Yes, they are.
gollark: Technically, all dragons with codes produce codes.
gollark: I wonder why your florets are more desirable than the xenowyrms.

References
  1. Meacham, Steve (20 September 2003). "Out of Steppes with fashion, but it's still a princely outfit". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  2. Baker, Jordan (4 November 2012). "Why our proud MP Alex Greenwich is first among equals". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  3. "Mr (Alex) Alexander Hart GREENWICH, MP". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
  4. "Alex Greenwich". 25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians. Samesame.com.au. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
  5. Harrison, Dan (14 May 2012). "Push for Gillard to review gay marriage". theage.com.au. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
  6. Ozturk, Serkan (18 July 2012). "Alex Greenwich enters politics, joins Clover's team". SX Gay News Network. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  7. Ozturk, Serkan (16 August 2012). "Greenwich remains coy on state parliament run". SX Gay News Network. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  8. Page, Don (3 April 2012). "Law passed to prohibit 'dual roles' in NSW" (PDF) (Press release). Government of New South Wales. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 August 2013. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  9. "Clover retires after 24 years in the chamber". ABC News. 20 September 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  10. Green, Antony. "Results". 2012 Sydney by-election. ABC Elections. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  11. AAP (27 October 2012). "Clover Moore-backed candidateAlex Greenwich romps in". The Australian. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  12. AAP (28 October 2012). "Greenwich rejects 'single issue' claims". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  13. "Key Policies". Alex Greenwich – Independent for Sydney. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  14. "Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill". New South Wales Parliament. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Preceded by
Clover Moore		 Member for Sydney
2012–present		 Incumbent
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