Alexander Hart Greenwich (born 28 November 1980) is the member of 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 ...

, representing the seat of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

since the 2012 Sydney by-election. He ran as an

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 * Independ ...

and was backed by his predecessor, independent

Clover Moore Clover Margaret Moore (née Collins, born 22 October 1945) is an Australian politician. She has been the List of Mayors and Lord Mayors of Sydney, Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney since 2004 and is currently the longest serving Lord Mayor of Syd ...

. He is also the Co-Chair of

Australian Marriage Equality Australian Marriage Equality (AME) was an advocacy group driven by volunteers who came together to pursue the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. AME partnered with a diverse range of organisations and supporters across the country to ...

and was one of the key leaders of the successful Yes campaign for the

Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in e ...

in 2017 and abortion legalization within New South Wales in 2019.

Early years and background

Greenwich was born in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

to a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

father and

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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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. At the age of seven, Greenwich moved with his family to Sydney, Australia. From his family residence in

Circular Quay Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping port, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia on the northern edge of the Syd ...

, Greenwich was educated at

Sydney Grammar School (Praise be to God) , established = , type = Independent, day school , gender = Boys , religious_affiliation = None , slogan = , headmaster = R. B. Malpass , founder = Laurence Hynes Halloran , chairman = ...

and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resource Management and Russian Studies at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. From 1 December 1998 to 1 December 2012, Greenwich was the Managing Director of his own recruiting agency, ''Winning Attitudes Recruitment''.

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

. Prior to running for office, Greenwich was from 2009 the national convener of

and was named as one of Samesame.com.au's 25 most influential gay and lesbian Australians in 2010. As national convener, Greenwich organised over 44,000 submissions to be made to the 2011

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

inquiry into same-sex marriage, and continues to be a prominent activist for achieving same-sex marriage reform in Australia. In May 2012, Greenwich married his

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long-term partner, Victor Hoeld in

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, where same-sex marriage was already

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Political career

In July 2012, Greenwich aligned himself with prominent

Lord Mayor of Sydney The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Sydney is the head of the Council of the City of Sydney, which is the local government area covering the central business district of Sydney in the State of New South Wales, Australia. The Lord Mayor has be ...

and announced his candidacy on Moore's ticket for the

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elections scheduled for the NSW local government elections in September 2012. 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

in light of promised reforms by the

O'Farrell O'Farrell is an anglicised form of the Old Irish patronym ''Ó Fearghail''. People with the surname * Barry O'Farrell, Australian politician * Bernadette O'Farrell (1924–1999), Irish actress * Bob O'Farrell, American baseballer * Brett O'Farrel ...

Liberal/National government to ban MPs from serving on local government bodies. This legislation was subsequently passed as the 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

, triggering a by-election. Greenwich subsequently contested the 2012 Sydney by-election as an independent with the endorsement of Moore, comfortably defeating

Shayne Mallard Maxwell Shayne Mallard (born 4 September 1964) is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 2015. He was formerly a councillor of the City of South Sydney from 2000 to 2004, and ...

of the

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with a 47.3 percent primary and 63.7 percent

two-candidate preferred In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP) is the result of an election or opinion poll after preferences have been distributed to the highest two candidates, who in some cases can be independents. For the purposes of TPP, ...

vote. Greenwich said after the by-election that it was "very clear

Barry O'Farrell Barry Robert O'Farrell (born 24 May 1959) is a former Australian politician who has been Australia's High Commissioner to India and non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan since May 2020. O'Farrell was the 43rd Premier of New South Wales and Minis ...

's legislation has backfired – because now there are two of us". Greenwich has denied claims that he is a single-issue politician, 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. Greenwich introduced the '' Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019'' into the

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''.

References

External links

Alex Greenwich – Independent for Sydney
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenwich, Alex 1980 births Living people Australian people of American descent Australian people of Georgian descent Australian people of Russian descent Gay politicians Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales LGBT rights activists from Australia LGBT legislators in Australia Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly New Zealand emigrants to Australia People educated at Sydney Grammar School Politicians from Sydney University of New South Wales alumni House of Dadiani 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century LGBT people