Rear Admiral Peter Ross Sinclair, AC (born 16 November 1934) is a retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy who served as the 35th Governor of New South Wales from 8 August 1990 to 1 March 1996.
Born in Manly, New South Wales, he was educated at North Sydney Boys High School before joining the Navy through the Royal Australian Naval College.
Over a 41-year career, Sinclair saw active service in Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, and in relief operations following Cyclone Tracy, and commanded the naval base HMAS Penguin.
When his friend and navy colleague, Sir David Martin, resigned his commission as Governor of New South Wales in August 1990 due to an advancing medical condition, Sinclair was appointed to succeed him.
[2] Together they had two daughters, Jann a teacher on the North Shore of Sydney, Kay CEO of a recruitment company and a son, Commodore Peter John Sinclair, who joined the navy and was the commander in charge of the commissioning of the Collins class submarines.
The Premier of New South Wales, Nick Greiner, identified a military appointment as the only appropriate successor to Martin and recommended Sinclair's to Buckingham Palace.
While all previous Governors had maintained public access through Garden Parties and specific events, Sinclair was the first to start Government House open days, the first being on 24 March 1991.
Greiner then, promising parliamentary and government reforms, signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the other three Independents: Clover Moore (Bligh), Peter MacDonald (Manly) and John Hatton (South Coast), to secure their support in parliament for confidence and supply.
[9] Despite several seat changes reducing the Government majority to 47, equal to Labor's, thereby threatening a constitutional crisis, no problems occurred until the "Metherell affair" emerged.
The government subsequently created a job for Metherell, a position with the Environment Protection Agency, which he accepted, effectively engineering a vacancy in a seat that the Liberal Party would recover at a by-election.
This emerged over the introduction of reforms to introduce a fixed four-year parliamentary term, prompted by the independent's, particularly John Hatton's, desire to prevent Premiers from calling elections whenever it suited them.
"[13] In the 1992 Queen's Birthday honours list, Sinclair was invested as a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "Service to the Crown as Governor of New South Wales".
[15] Carr generated further antagonism between him and Sinclair, as well as public controversy, over his intentions to make the Governor a part-time post that did not require a residence or independent staff.
Carr, wanting to choose the successor himself, turned down Sinclair and chose the former Judge and Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, Gordon Samuels.
[2] In retirement, Sinclair gives regular talks on constitutional matters to various groups and he is Patron of the Hunter Medical Research Institute, Australian Surf Life Saving Foundation.,[18] Task Force 72 and the Rail Motor Society, Paterson.
[19] In June 2016, Sinclair was called as a witness before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and gave an account of his experience as a victim of a humiliating initiation ritual when he joined the navy and had vowed to never let the practice happen on his watch, during his time as Deputy Commander at HMAS Leeuwin Naval Base.