Greg Sword

Until recently he was Chairman of St Vincent’s Public Hospital Melbourne. He has also been General Secretary of the National Union of Workers and a former National President of the Australian Labour Party and Senior Vice President of the ACTU.

Greg has co-authored a number of reports on the development and evolution of the Union movement, including 'Australia Reconstructed' in 1987, which set the scene for the modernisation of the Union movement, and outlined an approach to wage fixation based on productivity increases and efficiencies in the workplace.

He was one of the pioneers in the development of industry superannuation and succeeded in establishing the Labour Union Co-operative Retirement Fund (LUCRF). LUCRF Super now has more than $1.2 billion under management and is consistently rated as one of the highest returning and most efficient funds in the industry.

He has a long history of active involvement in the Labor Party, dating back to his election as National President of Young Labor in 1972. In recent years, he has served as the Victorian Branch President of the ALP. At the National level, he has served on the Party's national executive for the past eight years.

Much of his activity during this time has been in policy development. He has been the convenor of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Policy Committee, and more recently has convened the Social Policy Committee covering areas including health, aged care and community services. He is the Deputy Chairman of the National Policy Committee of the Party.

As well as his work with the NUW, he has taken a keen and active interest in working for the rights of oppressed workers in the Asia-Pacific region and is Asia-Pacific Regional President International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association.