Nick Greiner - Political Career

Political Career

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Greiner unsuccessfully sought to enter the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the safe Liberal seat of Willoughby in 1978. Although defeated in his first bid to enter the legislature by local bus driver Eddie Britt as part of the "Wranslide" Labor victory that year, Greiner successfully contested a 1980 by-election for the electorate of Ku-ring-gai.

In 1981 Greiner unsuccessfully ran for the Liberal leadership but was narrowly defeated by John Dowd. Greiner subsequently succeeded Dowd as Opposition Leader in 1983. Highlighting allegations of corruption against the Australian Labor Party government of Premier Neville Wran during the 1984 election campaign, Greiner managed to cut the Labor government's previously overwhelming majority in half, from 41 seats to 21. In the process, he placed the Liberal–National Party Coalition within striking distance of winning the next state election.

Wran retired in 1986, and was succeeded by Barrie Unsworth. In what proved to be a harbinger of things to come, the Liberals came within 54 votes of derailing Unsworth's bid to enter the lower house (he'd previously been a member of the Legislative Council, and managed to take Wran's old seat on a large swing. At the March 1988 election, he led the Coalition to a landslide victory, scoring a 22-seat swing. In a rare move, Greiner also served as his own Treasurer.