Gregory Michael Piper (born 31 August 1957 in

Coffs Harbour, New South Wales Coffs Harbour is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. It is one of the largest urban centres on the North Coast, with a population of 78,759 as per 2021 census. The Gumbaynggirr ...

), an Australian politician, is the

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 ...

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

Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area in Greater Newcastle and part of the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city from 7 September 1984. The area is situated adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is ...

since 2007. Piper also served as Mayor of

City of Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area in Greater Newcastle and part of the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city from 7 September 1984. The area is situated adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is ...

between 2004 and 2012, prior to the enactment of the preventing dual membership of state parliament and local council.

Early years and background

Piper grew up in the Lake Macquarie suburb of

Kahibah Kahibah is a suburb of the City of Lake Macquarie, Greater Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, located from Newcastle's central business district. Kahibah is the closest suburb to Glenrock Lagoon, and is drained by Flaggy and Little Flag ...

. He has three children and five grandchildren. In his teenage years, he attended St Pius X high school in Adamstown. When Piper finished school, he worked in Steelworks for a year. When he didn't see a future there, he took a nursing job at Morisset Hospital, where he worked for 26 years. He now lives on the Morisset Peninsula in Mirrabooka, near the Westlakes suburb of Morisset, with his wife Lyn.

Political career

Piper was first elected to the City of Lake Macquarie Council in 1991 as an independent

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

and served as deputy mayor through 2000. He sat on and chaired numerous council and state government committees. Piper held the position of chair of the Lake Macquarie Estuary Management Committee and the Lake Macquarie Project Management Committee since the establishment of each. He also served on Hunter Waste Management and Planning Board for a number of years including a period as chair. He was directly elected as the mayor of Lake Macquarie in March 2004 and again in September 2008, where he received 60% of the first-preference vote. Piper was elected as the member for

at the 2007 general election. Piper has sat on the Legislative Assembly's Broadband Committee and currently is a member of the Natural Resources Committee (Climate Change). He was overwhelmingly reelected in the

2019 New South Wales state election The 2019 New South Wales state election was held on Saturday 23 March 2019 to elect the 57th Parliament of New South Wales, including all 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 21 of the 42 seats in the Legislative Council. The election was ...

, winning by a two-candidate vote of 72.6% against Labor's Jo Smith.

Political views

According to his web site, he is " left leaning, socially progressive, fiscally cautious, pragmatic, swinging voter; and staunchly Independent."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, Greg Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1957 births City of Lake Macquarie Living people Independent members of the Parliament of New South Wales People from the Hunter Region Mayors of places in New South Wales 21st-century Australian politicians