Webdiarist Jozef Imrich interviewed Greiner in 1997 and we have extracted parts of the interview which include Greiner’s reflections on the success and failure of his reform policies and the creation of Independent Commission Against Corruption, which he established during his leadership.
Interview with former Premier, the Hon. Nick Greiner by Jozef Imrich, Macquarie Street, Monday 24 February 1997
Jozef Imrich: If you look back at the political landscape in New South Wales during the Greiner era, what were your most successful decisions?
Nick Greiner: It is too hard to say! If I look at it in a macro level, I think it is fair to say that the reform agenda that I started has now been accepted as common across politics in Australia, across state politics - but really across politics generally. The notion of the importance of the market and competition, of breaking down some of the differentiation between public sector management and private sector management, of running the state’s balance sheet on a broadly practical and agency basis, the importance of debt, these are all important reforms. These are probably more than one decision, but that agenda is now in Mr Carr’s Office. As I was driving in this morning, I heard him say how proud he was of the AAA rating that we had. I think simply establishing the fundamental importance economic management at state level is the most important single thing. It had a great impact.
The second one is the integrity issue. I guess on that one almost everyone is in broad agreement about, that I do not get such good marks there. It is an issue which can be accurately marked because the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) not only helped to kill me, but it is generally regarded as a failure. I actually think that the primary objective to be achieved, which is once and for all to change the culture of integrity in the public sector in New South Wales at every level of judiciary and public servants and politicians, has been lost. The pendulum has clearly gone too far and a lot of the public sector people, both politicians and bureaucrats, are using ICAC as an excuse for not doing anything. The ICAC undoubtedly got some things wrong. All of that is bad, but I think the decision to make integrity an issue and to actually do something serious about it, was actually a pretty important decision. It has actually worked, despite having what you might call unintended consequences, including my departure.
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