Greg Hunt
Gregory Andrew Hunt is an Australian former politician who was the Minister for Health between January 2017 and May 2022. He was a Liberal Party member of the House of Representatives between November 2001 and 2022, representing the Division of Flinders in Victoria. He has previously served as a parliamentary secretary in the Howard government, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, and Minister for Sport.
From March 2020 until his retirement in May 2022, Hunt had oversight over the Australian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, international analyses reported a decline in global life expectancy of 1.6 years between the start of 2019 and the end of 2021, while Australia was one of a small number of countries to record an increase of 0.2 years over the same period.
In 2016, Hunt was named Best Minister in the World at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Following his parliamentary career, Hunt has held academic and advisory appointments, including as an Honorary Professor of Practice at University College London’s Global Business School for Health,as an Honorary Enterprise Professor at the University of Melbourne and as Chair of the Advisory Council of the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University.
Early life
Gregory Andrew Hunt was born on 18 November 1965 in Frankston, Victoria. He was born to Kathinka and Alan Hunt. He had four older half brothers from his father's first marriage. His father was a solicitor by profession who had been elected to the Victorian Legislative Council in 1962, and served as a Liberal state government minister in the 1970s and 1980s. Hunt's maternal grandmother Phyllis Forster was one of the first women to graduate from the Victorian College of Pharmacy. His mother worked as a nurse, but suffered from a form of bipolar disorder and was later temporarily institutionalised. She died of a heart attack at the age of 58, while her son was studying abroad.Hunt grew up in Mornington, Victoria, attending Mornington Primary School and the Peninsula School. He took a gap year after leaving high school, travelling through Ireland, the Alps, Spain, and Israel. He lived on a kibbutz for several months, learning Hebrew and working in a machine shop. After returning to Australia, Hunt studied arts and law at the University of Melbourne, living at Ormond College and graduating with first-class honours in both disciplines. At university he developed friendships with Mary Wooldridge and John Roskam. He was head of the debating society and partnered with Rufus Black at the 1984 World Universities Debating Championship in Edinburgh, Scotland, finishing in second place. He won a prize for a final-year thesis he co-authored with Black, titled A Tax to Make the Polluter Pay.
Hunt was one of seven Liberal MPs in the 46th Parliament of Australia who have obtained degrees at an Oxbridge or Ivy League university, the others being Alan Tudge, Angus Taylor, Andrew Laming, Dave Sharma, Josh Frydenberg and Paul Fletcher.
Career
Hunt joined law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques after completing his undergraduate degree. In 1992 he was an associate to Michael Black, the chief justice of the Federal Court of Australia. Hunt subsequently completed a Master of Arts in International Relations at Yale University as a Fulbright Scholar. He also interned at the UN Centre for Human Rights in Geneva, "researching atrocities in the former Yugoslavia".In 1994, Hunt began working as a senior adviser to Alexander Downer, the federal leader of opposition. He remained in Downer's office until 1998, spanning his resignation as Liberal leader and later appointment as foreign minister in the Howard government. He was the chief of the Australian Electoral Observer Mission at the 1998 Cambodian general election. Hunt subsequently worked as a senior fellow at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Comparative Constitutional Law, as engagement manager at management consultants McKinsey and Co., and held the position of Director of Strategy at the World Economic Forum. He was a foundation investor in project management software company Aconex, but had to sell his shares in 2013 when he became a government minister.
Politics
Early career
Hunt was elected to the House of Representatives at the 2001 federal election, standing in the Division of Flinders. He had been asked to stand for Liberal preselection by the retiring MP Peter Reith. In 2003 he supported the invasion of Iraq and the action to oust Saddam Hussein on the basis of humanitarian relief and served as a spokesman for the Howard government's policies.As a first-term member of Parliament for the Division of Flinders, Hunt undertook local community initiatives alongside his federal duties. He helped unlock funding for the construction of the Phillip Island Health Hub, a community health facility providing specialist services to residents and visitors on Phillip Island, with Australian Government investment supporting its development in collaboration with local organisations. He supported the establishment of Somerville Secondary College, a fully autonomous secondary school in Somerville that was established after years of community advocacy, including work by Hunt and local stakeholders to retain land and expand educational opportunities.
Hunt also completed multiple 500 km charity walks around his electorate to raise awareness and funds for autism, supporting the Abacus Learning Centre in Hastings and the Light Up Autism Foundation, among other local organisations.
Hunt was first elevated to the ministry following the 2004 federal election, when he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage. In January 2007, Hunt was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Following the Coalition's defeat at the 2007 election, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water. His title was altered to Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage after the 2010 election.
Abbott government (2013–2015)
After the 2013 federal election, Hunt was appointed Minister for the Environment in the Abbott government. One of his first actions as minister was to inform Tim Flannery, the head of the Gillard government's Climate Commission, that the government was closing this body, as per its election platform. In December 2013, he announced a project to dredge Abbot Point, which was approved by the Marine Park Authority in January 2014..During his tenure as Minister for the Environment, Hunt oversaw a range of water management and reef protection initiatives. In 2015, the government released the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, a comprehensive framework developed in response to concerns raised by UNESCO regarding the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status. The plan was accompanied by the expansion of the Reef Trust, a funding mechanism for reef protection and water quality improvement projects. Later that year, Hunt announced a permanent ban on the disposal of capital dredge spoil within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
Hunt also played a role in water reform relating to the Murray–Darling Basin Plan. In September 2015, legislation to cap water buybacks under the Basin Plan passed the Senate, marking a significant milestone in the implementation of the Murray–Darling Basin framework.
In the area of climate policy, Hunt was responsible for the establishment of the Emissions Reduction Fund, which committed A$2.55 billion to emissions abatement projects through a reverse auction mechanism. The government reported that Australia met and exceeded its 2020 emissions reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol during this period. Internationally, Hunt represented Australia in negotiations under the Montreal Protocol and was involved in advancing the “Dubai Pathway”, under which participating countries agreed to begin work on reducing hydrofluorocarbon emissions, a class of potent greenhouse gases.
Hunt also brokered the National Clean Air Agreement with state and territory governments, establishing a cooperative framework to improve air quality and reduce health impacts associated with particulate matter pollution, including PM2.5 and PM10.
In the area of land and species protection, Hunt established the role of Australia’s first Threatened Species Commissioner to coordinate national conservation efforts and prioritise recovery actions for at-risk flora and fauna. He also renewed the National Environmental Science Program, providing funding for research to support evidence-based environmental decision-making.
In a 2013 public seminar outline later published by the Grattan Institute, Hunt outlined his approach to environmental protection and cultural heritage conservation, emphasising the integration of water management, land stewardship and heritage protection within broader environmental governance frameworks.
Turnbull government (2015–2018)
Following the change in Liberal Party leadership in September 2015, Hunt was retained as Minister for the Environment in the new Turnbull government. In February 2016, Hunt was named "Best Minister in the World" by a panel established by Thomson Reuters for the 2016 World Government Summit of Dubai.With the reelection of the Turnbull government in 2016, Hunt became the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science in the Second Turnbull Ministry. Following the resignation of Sussan Ley as Health Minister in January 2017, Turnbull appointed Hunt as the Minister for Health and the Minister for Sport.
In June 2017 Hunt, Michael Sukkar and Alan Tudge faced the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of court after they made public statements criticising the sentencing decisions of two senior judges while the government was awaiting their ruling on a related appeal. They avoided prosecution by, eventually, making an unconditional apology to the Victorian Court of Appeal. During the run up to the Victorian state elections of 2018, Hunt participated in the African gangs moral panic by stating "We know that African gang crime in some areas is clearly out of control. The failure is not police, but the Premier."
In Turnbull's 2020 autobiography A Bigger Picture, he described Hunt as "widely distrusted by his colleagues" and stated that he "all too often used abusive and vulgar language towards others", including to his department secretary Martin Bowles. Contrastingly, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison publicly paid tribute to Hunt upon his retirement, describing him as “an incredibly great member of my team” with “a big brain and a big heart”, reflecting broad cross-bench appreciation for his long service and leadership of the pandemic response.