45 Facts About Nathan Rees

Nathan Rees is an Australian former politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and leader of the New South Wales Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009.

Nathan Rees replaced Morris Iemma as Premier and party leader on 5 September 2008.

At 40 years and 206 days of age, Nathan Rees became the youngest person to assume the office, a record that has since been surpassed by Dominic Perrottet.

On 3 December 2009, Nathan Rees was deposed as leader of the Labor Party by Kristina Keneally after he resoundingly lost a secret ballot in the Labor Party caucus after fifteen months as Premier.

Nathan Rees is the shortest-serving member of the New South Wales Parliament to become Premier since Federation, and the only Labor Premier of New South Wales not to lead the party into an election.

Nathan Rees was born in 1968 in Western Sydney to parents Daryl and Frances, his mother being a longtime member of the Labor Party, reportedly from Penrith, New South Wales.

Nathan Rees attended Northmead Creative and Performing Arts High School where he served as school captain.

Nathan Rees was a long-distance runner, and a member of the Parramatta Cycling Club, where he won many events.

Nathan Rees once attained third place in a state triathlon.

Nathan Rees subsequently worked for Ministers Craig Knowles and Morris Iemma, and as chief of staff for Minister Milton Orkopoulos.

Nathan Rees has stated that he had no knowledge of the crimes committed by Orkopoulos, and would have reported him to the police had he been aware of them.

Nathan Rees was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly on 24 March 2007 and became Minister for Emergency Services, and Minister for Water Utilities, on 2 April 2007.

At the time Nathan Rees was appointed Minister for Water Utilities, Sydney was experiencing extreme drought conditions requiring transfer of water from the Shoalhaven River to Sydney and the imposition of water restrictions.

Nathan Rees denied that he was a contender for the role, saying that "Premier Iemma has my rock-solid, unequivocal support and he knows that".

Nathan Rees was sworn in by the Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales, Chief Justice of New South Wales James Spigelman after only nineteen months as a member of parliament.

On 14 November 2009, Nathan Rees was granted extraordinary powers by the New South Wales Labor State Conference to pick his own cabinet.

The next day Nathan Rees sacked Finance Minister Joe Tripodi, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald, and Parliamentary Secretaries Henry Tsang and Sonia Hornery for blocking key reforms aimed at distancing the government from corruption and improving the provision of services to constituents and for plotting to remove him from the premiership.

The Nathan Rees government responded to the crisis with a three-point plan.

Nathan Rees emphasised that as finance and credit became harder to get around the world, retaining a Triple A credit rating was essential to being able to borrow money at the lowest rates available.

Secondly, as chair of the government's Budget sub-committee, Nathan Rees announced there would be a mini-budget which was delivered in November 2008.

Third, Nathan Rees drew industry and business leaders together to conduct a job summit.

Together with the Federal government, Nathan Rees established 175,000 new training places in the vocational training sector, and provided a training guarantee for apprentices who had had their apprenticeships interrupted.

Controversially, Nathan Rees introduced non-religious Ethics classes into primary schools against fierce opposition from church groups.

Nathan Rees announced the establishment of Yengo National Park in the Upper Hunter region; 120,000 hectares of pristine bushland, in June 2009.

Furthermore, the Nathan Rees government announced an additional 65,000 hectares of land in Yanga National Park in the Riverina.

Nathan Rees opened the Epping to Chatswood rail line, the first piece of significant rail infrastructure in a decade, and projected usage was quickly outstripped.

In November 2009, Nathan Rees announced approval for Stage 2 of the South West Rail Link, a $1.3 billion project to improve public rail services to south western Sydney.

Nathan Rees established the Bureau of Health Information in July 2009 to produce regular and timely reports on the performance of the NSW health system, including waiting lists, and developing and distributing tools to allow users to interrogate data.

Nathan Rees introduced eyesight screening for preschoolers to complement universal hearing tests previously introduced by Craig Knowles.

In November 2009, Nathan Rees announced the single largest handback of Aboriginal land in the state's history.

Nathan Rees famously said "I'd rather have Brian Eno for two weeks than Tiger Woods for 3 days".

James Hardie made inadequate provision, and Nathan Rees intervened in 2009 to ensure that affected individuals would be able to claim into the future.

Nathan Rees distanced himself from these with a range of reforms.

Nathan Rees overhauled the Freedom of Information Act and replaced it with the Government Information Act which had an explicit bias towards public disclosure of documentation and Government information.

Nathan Rees appointed an independent commissioner to oversee the operation of this Act.

In November 2009, Nathan Rees announced that he wanted to move towards public funding of election campaigns instead of a reliance on large corporate donations.

Nathan Rees banned donations from property developers to the NSW Labor Party.

Nathan Rees introduced the requirement for lobbyists to be registered and to abide by a Lobbyist Code of Conduct.

On 3 December 2009, Nathan Rees was forced to face a spill motion at a caucus meeting.

On 22 October 2010, Nathan Rees was granted by the Governor retention of the title "The Honourable".

Nathan Rees nearly lost his own seat, suffering a massive 14.2 percent swing and surviving by only 205 votes.

Nathan Rees repeatedly stressed he did not feel vindicated, but rather was distressed that the Party and its members had been subject to the smear of association with those who had been investigated.

On 28 March 2014, after resigning from the Shadow Cabinet, Nathan Rees announced that he would be retiring from politics and would not contest the next state election in 2015.

Nathan Rees is a non-practising Roman Catholic and proudly describes himself as "a westie".

Nathan Rees met his wife, Stacey Haines, at Northmead High School when they were both aged 14.