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

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and was backed by his predecessor, independent Clover Moore. 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 ...

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 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 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 opposi ...

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

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, 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 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-intensiv ...

. 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 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 German long-term partner, Victor Hoeld in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, where same-sex marriage was already

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

Political career

In July 2012, Greenwich aligned himself with prominent

Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and announced his candidacy on Moore's ticket for the

Sydney City Council The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

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 Sydney 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 of the

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with a 47.3 percent primary and 63.7 percent two-candidate preferred 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