Nicholas Frank Hugo Greiner AC (/ˈɡraɪnər/; born 27 April 1947) is an Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of New South Wales from 1988 to 1992.

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.

[7] Greiner successfully defended Ku-ring-gai in the 1981 state election, managing a modest swing in his favour even as the Liberal-National Country Coalition was cut down to only 28 seats in total.

[10] By September 1988, having promised at the election to run the state like a business, the government were able to announce serious progress towards reducing the state debt and its first budget projected a surplus, and were trying to resolve housing pressures caused by rapidly increasing house prices (which rose from $65,000 to $165,000 in the twelve months to October).

Despite significant pressure from the parliamentary Nationals, whose leader was implicated in one of the investigations, Greiner refused to budge or to dilute ICAC's powers.

[13] A series of strikes on the part of teachers and the growing unpopularity of Education Minister Terry Metherell caused problems for the Greiner government during the latter stages of its first term.

The government also cut rail services to the north coast, deeming them commercially unviable, and cut 8,000 State Rail Authority employees in an effort to offset the authority's $1 billion annual debt – however, this left the Pacific Highway as the only land transport link for several major towns, and in October and December 1989, two major crashes on the road, both involving passenger buses, claimed a combined total of 54 deaths and 55 injuries.

[12] While Opposition Leader Bob Carr made the link between pressure on roads and withdrawal of the country services,[14] a coroner's report in April 1990 pinned the blame on the Federal Government and its "piecemeal" approach to repairs of the Pacific Highway.

[15] In May 1990, Greiner asked Metherell to try and resolve the ongoing battle with the state's teachers, and they were offered a 9% pay rise, although the disputes continued.

Lecturers in the TAFE system, also within Metherell's portfolio, joined them after the government indicated its willingness to implement a report by a private management consultant envisaging a public-private partnership and massive staffing cuts.

[citation needed] He criticised then Federal Opposition Leader John Howard's controversial comments on immigration policy during the late 1980s, and was widely respected within the ethnic community.

His parliamentary majority was further eroded with the decision of Terry Metherell to become an Independent in late 1991, and with the loss of The Entrance in a 1992 by-election following a Court of Disputed Returns overthrowing the original result.

Greiner was only the second head of government at either federal or state level in Australia who was born outside the Commonwealth of Nations, the first being Chris Watson, Prime Minister in 1904.

[citation needed] Greiner and Environment Minister Tim Moore decided to offer Liberal-turned-independent MP Terry Metherell an executive position in the Environmental Protection Authority.

[16] On 19 June, ICAC commissioner Ian Temby concluded that while Greiner had not acted criminally and had not set out to be corrupt, he would be seen "by a notional jury as conducting himself contrary to known and recognised standards of honesty and integrity".

[20] The court found that ICAC had "exceeded its jurisdiction" in ruling against the two ministers[21] and granted "declaratory relief that the Commission's report was wrong in law".

[23] While the section was not repealed, a sub-section was ultimately added in 1994 which addressed the behaviour of ministers and members of parliament, and gave legislative enforcement to ministerial and parliamentary codes of conduct.

Greiner was chairman of the board of WD & HO Wills and then British American Tobacco Australia for the period 1996 to 2004.