Julian Fletcher Grill (born 15 May 1940) is an Australian former politician. Grill was a member of the

Parliament of Western Australia The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...

between 1977 and 2001.

Early life and education

Grill was born in

Sydney, New South Wales 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 Mountains ...

and was brought up in

Broken Hill, New South Wales Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. It is ...

Collie, Western Australia Collie is a town in the South West region of Western Australia, south of the state capital, Perth, and inland from the regional city and port of Bunbury. It is near the junction of the Collie and Harris Rivers, in the middle of dense jarrah fo ...

, and

Subiaco, Western Australia Subiaco (known colloquially as Subi) is an inner-Western suburbs (Perth), western suburb of Perth, the capital of Western Australia. It is approximately west of Perth's central business district, in the City of Subiaco local government area. H ...

. He attended

Perth Modern School , motto_translation = Knowledge is Power , location = Subiaco, Perth, Western Australia , country = Australia , coordinates = , mapframe-stroke-colour = #C60C30 , mapframe-marker-co ...

and the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws.

Legal career

Grill was admitted to the Western Australian

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

of the

Supreme Court of Western Australia The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters (although it usually only hears matters involving sums of A$750,00 ...

in 1966. A partner of Henshaw, Wheeldon and Grill; Evans and Grill; and Grill Browne and Co, he specialised in mining and resources law.

Parliamentary career

Grill was elected as the Member for Yilgarn-Dundas in Western Australia's

Lower House A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

in 1977. Due to redistributions the seat changed a number of times, initially becoming Esperance-Dundas and eventually Eyre. He was re-elected in subsequent elections, and was promoted to the

front bench In many parliaments and other similar assemblies, seating is typically arranged in banks or rows, with each political party or caucus grouped together. The spokespeople for each group will often sit at the front of their group, and are then kn ...

in 1981. Grill became Minister for Transport in the First Burke Ministry in 1983. He later served in the Agriculture, Fisheries, the North West, Regional Development, Economic Development, Trade and Tourism portfolios. He retired from politics in 2001 and did not contest the 2001 election. As a politician, Grill commenced planning for metropolitan rail expansion and electrification, re-establishing the Perth to Fremantle rail service, led the legislative process to abolish capital punishment, led streamlining the rail freight services to cut out overmanning, initiated rail rejuvenation in the Perth metropolitan area, began the process of selling WA education in Asia, with colleagues conceived and instituted the Bunbury 2000 programme, executed the state's largest regional renewal project, wrote the energy policy adopted by the Gallop government, superintended the state's first substantial marine national parks and reserves, led conception and delivery of the

Hillarys Boat Harbour Hillarys Boat Harbour is a marina and tourist precinct located in Hillarys, north of Perth, Western Australia and on the Indian Ocean. History Hillarys Boat Harbour was the first such major marina in the north metropolitan region of Perth. Co ...

development, was a member of the team that established the

Dawesville Channel Dawesville Channel (also known as Dawesville Cut) is an artificial channel between the Peel-Harvey Estuary and the Indian Ocean at Dawesville, about south of Perth in Western Australia. It is south of the regional city of Mandurah and north o ...

, led trade delegations to India, China and Hong Kong, secured substantial funding for community projects in Collie, discontinued the Fitzgerald National Park land release programme, facilitated the government's commitment to the

Collie Power Station Collie Power Station is a power station in Collie, Western Australia. It is coal powered with one steam turbine that generates a total capacity of 300 megawatts of electricity. The coal is mined locally from the Collie Sub-basin and is transpo ...

, facilitated the commitment of

Griffin Coal Griffin Coal is a large coal mine near the town of Collie in Western Australia, producing about of coal annually. In September 2022 its current owner, the Griffin Coal Mining Company, a subsidiary of Lanco Infratech, entered receivership. In D ...

to the

Bluewaters Power Station Bluewaters Power Station was the first privately owned, coal-fired power station in Western Australia. It was built by Griffin Energy in 2009 and is the newest coal-fired power station in Australia. The site is northeast of Collie. The plant ...

, and helped convince Worsley (BHP) to embrace coal in its recent major expansions.

Post-parliamentary career

As a lobbyist Grill contributed directly to breaking the Pilbara iron-ore duopoly (

BHP Billiton BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Propri ...

and

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, a ...

) helping to open the way for

Fortescue Metals Group Fortescue Metals Group Limited (often referred to as Fortescue Metals Group, FMG, or simply Fortescue) is an Australian iron ore company. As of 2017, Fortescue is the fourth-largest iron ore producer in the world. The company has holdings of ...

and others. He also helped secure compensation for victims of the mortgage brokers scandal in Western Australia and played a key role in advancing several major projects, many of which generated significant employment in Western Australia. In 2007 Grill was expelled from the Australian Labor Party over a donation he facilitated on behalf of a client to the

WA Nationals The National Party of Australia (WA) Inc, branded The Nationals WA, is a political party in Western Australia. It is affiliated with the National Party of Australia but maintains a separate structure and identity. Since the 2021 state election ...

during the 2004/05 financial year. Later in 2007, he was forced to publicly apologise to the Legislative Assembly for leaking a draft parliamentary committee report to

Precious Metals Australia Precious may refer to: Music * Precious (group), a British female pop group Albums * ''Precious'' (Chanté Moore album), 1992 * ''Precious'' (Cubic U album), 1998 * ''Precious'' (Ours album), 2002 * ''Precious'' (Precious album), 2000 * ...

in 2006 after receiving it from longtime friend and former Labor minister John Bowler. The following year, he was ordered to apologise in writing to the

Western Australian Legislative Council The Western Australian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, a state of Australia. It is regarded as a house of review for legislation passed by the Legislative Assembly, the lower house. The two Houses ...

for giving Burke documents from an inquiry into the iron ore industry. However, he refused to do so, putting him at risk of being jailed for

contempt of parliament In countries with a parliamentary system of government, contempt of Parliament is the offence of obstructing the legislature in the carrying out of its functions, or of hindering any legislator in the performance of his duties. Typology The conce ...

, though the Upper House ultimately opted against jailing him. Grill was investigated by the

Corruption and Crime Commission The Corruption and Crime Commission is an independent anti-corruption agency established on 1 January 2004 to improve the integrity of the Western Australian public sector and investigate allegations of misconduct against public officers. It t ...

of Western Australia and was charged. He was subsequently found not guilty of all charges. In 2014 Grill was involved in business providing specialist expertise in negotiation, business acquisitions, property development and general management. Grill has been chairman or a non-executive director of

ASX Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

-listed companies Asia Oil and Minerals, Kalgoorlie Boulder Resources, Regal Resources, and Focus Resources. He was the principal of Julian Grill Consulting and is the principal of Julian Grill Advisory. His interests include agriculture, resources, civil rights and the Goldfields of Western Australia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grill, Julian 1940 births Living people Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly People educated at Perth Modern School Politicians from Sydney People from Goldfields-Esperance University of Western Australia alumni Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia 21st-century Australian politicians