Greenwich was born in New Zealand to a Georgian father and American mother. His father, Victor Greenwich Dadianov, was born Prince Victor Dadianov of the princely Georgian Dadiani family but his mother changed the name to Greenwich after they moved as refugees to New Zealand from Russia after the Second World War. At the age of seven, Greenwich moved with his family to Sydney, Australia. From his family residence in Circular Quay, Greenwich was educated at Sydney Grammar School and completed a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resource Management and Russian Studies at the University of New South Wales. From 1 December 1998 to 1 December 2012, Greenwich was the Managing Director of his own recruiting agency, Winning Attitudes Recruitment.
Personal life
Greenwich is the only openly gay male MP in the NSW Legislative Assembly. Before entering politics, Greenwich was a prominent LGBT rights activist and led Australian Marriage Equality. Prior to running for office, Greenwich was from 2009 the national convener of Australian Marriage Equality and was named as one of Samesame.com.au's 25 most influential gay and lesbian Australians in 2010. As national convener, Greenwich organised over 44,000 submissions to be made to the 2011 senate inquiry into same-sex marriage, and continues to be a prominent activist for achieving same-sex marriage reform in Australia. In May 2012, Greenwich married his German long-term partner, Victor Hoeld in Argentina, where same-sex marriage is legal.
Political career
In July 2012, Greenwich aligned himself with prominent independent Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore and announced his candidacy on Moore's ticket for the Sydney City Council elections scheduled for the NSW local government elections in September 2012. This low position on the ticket fuelled speculation that this was to increase Greenwich's visibility for a possible run to succeed Moore should she be forced to resign her state seat of Sydney in light of promised reforms by the O'Farrell Liberal/National government to ban MPs from serving on local government bodies. This legislation was subsequently passed as the and following the local government elections in which Moore was re-elected for a third term as lord mayor, Moore resigned her seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, triggering a by-election. Greenwich subsequently contested the 2012 Sydney by-election as an independent with the endorsement of Moore, comfortably defeating Shayne Mallard of the Liberal Party with a 47.3 percent primary and 63.7 percent two-candidate preferred vote. Greenwich said after the by-election that it was "very clear Barry O'Farrell's legislation has backfired – because now there are two of us". Greenwich has denied claims that he is a single-issue politician, having gone to the by-election on a platform involving a range of policy areas, including small business, the re-establishment of an inner-city public high school, and social welfare and public housing, among others. Greenwich introduced the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 into the New South Wales Legislative Assembly on 1 August 2019, in a bid to decriminalise abortion in New South Wales, allow abortions for up to 22 weeks, and permit an abortion after 22 weeks if two medical practitioners agree. The bill passed the parliament on 26 September and was assented on 2 October 2019 as the Abortion Law Reform Act 2019.
