Adrian Piccoli

The Honourable Adrian Piccoli MP
Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Murrumbidgee
In office 27 March 1999 – 28 March 2015
Preceded by	Adrian Cruickshank
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
Member of the New South Wales Parliament for Murray
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 March 2015
Preceded by	New seat
Minister for Education
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 April 2011
Premier	Barry O'Farrell Mike Baird
Preceded by	Verity Firth
Personal details
Born	(1970-03-24) 24 March 1970 Griffith, New South Wales
Political party	The Nationals
Children	Two
Alma mater	Australian National University
Profession	Solicitor; Farmer
Religion	Roman Catholicism[1]
Website	Parliamentary biography

Adrian Piccoli (born 24 March 1970) is an Australian politician representing the electoral district of Murray in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He was the deputy leader of the Nationals in the New South Wales Parliament from 2008 to 2016, and has been the Minister for Education since 2011, in both the O'Farrell and Baird ministries.^[2]

Personal life

Of Italian descent,^[1] Piccoli was born in Griffith. He completed a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at the Australian National University in 1993.^[3]

Prior to starting his political career, Piccoli worked as an irrigation rice farmer and solicitor.^[4] Piccoli is married, has two children,^[5] and is a Roman Catholic.^[1]

Political career

Piccoli has represented Murrumbidgee for the Nationals since the 1999 state election.^[5] In 2008 he became the deputy leader of the National Party in the NSW Parliament.

Following the Coalition victory in the 2011 New South Wales election, Piccoli was chosen by Premier Barry O'Farrell to be part of his cabinet as the Minister for Education.^[2]

When Deputy Premier and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner announced his resignation in 2014, Piccoli as Stoner's deputy was expected to stand as a candidate to succeed him as Nationals leader but chose not to nominate for the leadership and instead remained deputy to new leader Troy Grant. It is believed that Piccoli did not have the numbers to beat Grant for the leadership, despite Grant's political inexperience. Stoner had endorsed Grant over Piccoli as his successor.^[6]

In 2016 Grant resigned as Deputy Premier and Nationals leader but Piccoli again did not stand for the leadership and instead stood down as deputy leader.

Piccoli has promoted an educational reform called "Local Schools, Local Decisions" to give state schools more authority.^[7][8]

Ethics classes

Ethics classes were introduced by the Keneally Labor government as an alternative for children who did not want to attend traditional scripture classes.^[9] Prior to the 2011 state election, Barry O'Farrell made a pre-election pledge of not scrapping the ethics classes. Following the election, Fred Nile, who was vehemently opposed to the ethics classes, introduced a private members bill proposing the abolition of the classes,^[10][11] arguing that the ethics course is based on a philosophy linked to Nazism and communism.^[12][13]

Mike Baird's coalition government won the 2015 state election, promising to lease parts of the electricity grid to private operators, while Fred Nile held the balance of power in the upper house. While negotiating the lease of the electricity grid, Mike Baird announced changes to scripture enrolment forms, with the availability of ethics classes removed from forms sent to parents.^[14][15][16] The existence of ethics classes would only be made known to parents in a secondary form if they had chosen no scripture classes. The form would also remove the "no" box that allows parents to opt out of scripture classes for their children, making them tick no box. The changes were described as 'misleading and deceptive' by Anglican minister John Dickson.^[17] Adrian Piccoli's department blocked access to the chairman of Primary Ethics, despite holding meetings with faith-based lobby groups.^[18]

The government made the enrollment process more complex in 2016, requiring parents to fill in multiple forms before being made aware that ethics classes are an option.^[19]

References