Nathan Rees

After leaving the PEF, Rees was subsequently appointed as the National Assistant Secretary of the Finance Sector Union (FSU) in May 2017 where he still works as of mid 2019.

On 28 March 2014, after resigning from the Shadow Cabinet, Rees announced that he would be retiring from politics and would not contest the next state election in 2015. This was likely prompted by a redistribution that seemingly made his seat impossible to hold. The bulk of his old seat of Toongabbie had been transferred into a recreated Seven Hills, notionally a safe Liberal seat.

In October 2014, following his announcement to retire from politics, Rees took up a position as the chief executive of the Public Education Foundation (PEF), a non-profit organisation that provides scholarships to disadvantaged students to support them to stay at school: "The public education system in NSW is very strong but this foundation will allow those kids who may not have the resources to buy the extra book or the bit of software they need."

In 2013, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) commenced public hearings into the allegations of corrupt conduct by Ian MacDonald and Eddie Obeid. Both men had been instrumental in the removal of Rees as Premier. The ICAC findings released after the hearings were scathing of both men. Both Macdonald and Obeid were found to have acted corruptly by the ICAC, who recommended the Director of Public Prosecutions give consideration to criminal charges being laid against both men. 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.

Shortly after coming to office, the death of an outlaw motorcycle gang member at Sydney airport required Rees to introduce controversial laws aimed at banning criminal gangs. Fierce opposition from civil libertarians followed, and in June 2011, the High Court ruled against the government.

As Arts Minister, one of Rees early tasks was to announce the establishment of an annual festival, Vivid Sydney. Described as a 'festival of lights and ideas', the inaugural curator was Brian Eno, an influential music and album producer. Despite being an international superstar in his own field, the choice of Eno was the subject of derision by sections of the media. Many argued they would have preferred to have Tiger Woods (who was to play golf in Victoria). Rees famously said "I'd rather have Brian Eno for two weeks than Tiger Woods for 3 days". The Vivid Festival is now in its 11th year and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Sydney.

Whilst Minister for the Arts, Rees also granted independence to the National Art School, and commenced master planning for a new visual arts centre at the Old King's School site in Parramatta. This latter commitment was retained by Kristina Keneally when she took over as Premier, and it formed the central element of the Arts policy announcement in the 2011 election.

Following his removal as Premier, Rees declined to serve in the Keneally Cabinet, and went to the backbench until the March 2011 election.

The Keneally government was heavily defeated at the 2011 state election. Rees nearly lost his own seat, suffering a massive 14.2 percent swing and surviving by only 205 votes. By comparison, he'd won election in 2007 with 64.5 percent of the two-party vote; he was one of several MPs from Labor's traditional stronghold of west Sydney who saw their majorities more than halved. Following the election, new Opposition leader John Robertson appointed Rees as Shadow Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Shadow Minister for the Arts in his new Shadow Cabinet.

Despite ongoing disputes between criminal gangs, the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reported that in the 24 months to December 2010, ten of the 17 major offence categories were stable and seven were falling.

On 14 November 2009, Rees was granted extraordinary powers by the New South Wales Labor State Conference to pick his own cabinet (usually the Labor caucus and Head Office chooses the ministry, and the leader only assigns portfolios). The next day Rees sacked Finance Minister (and Labor powerbroker) 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. This was the fourth time since Rees had taken over the premiership that there had been a cabinet reshuffle.

Rees also announced the establishment of Yengo National Park in the Upper Hunter region; 120,000 hectares of pristine bushland, in June 2009. Furthermore, the Rees government announced an additional 65,000 hectares of land in Yanga National Park in the Riverina.

In November 2009, 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.

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.

Whilst often criticised for the performance of hospitals, Rees was able to point to an Australian Government report titled The State of our Public Hospitals which in June 2009 reported that NSW had the best elective surgery and emergency department performances in Australia.

In November 2009, Rees announced the single largest handback of Aboriginal land in the state's history. The Yuin people of the South Coast of NSW had lodged a claim under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act for 20,000 hectares bordering the Morton National Park, including Yarramumum and Boolijong Creeks and parts of the Yerriyong State Forest. Rees granted the claim in full.

Acknowledging Labor history, Rees and the Lord Mayor of Sydney officially renamed parts of Hickson Road, The Rocks, as 'The Hungry Mile'. In years past, unemployed men would line up for work each day, thus giving the strip its name. A ceremony recognising the change was held on 29 July 2009.

NSW Labor had also been instrumental in holding the asbestos firm James Hardie to account. Under Premier Bob Carr, the Jackson Inquiry precipitated an ongoing fund to be established and maintained by James Hardie to provide for future payouts to sufferers of asbestosis. James Hardie made inadequate provision, and Rees intervened in 2009 to ensure that affected individuals would be able to claim into the future. A number of directors of James Hardie were ruled ineligible to be directors arising from their role in James Hardie restructures.

In November 2009, Rees announced that he wanted to move towards public funding of election campaigns instead of a reliance on large corporate donations. To further this, he established a Parliamentary Joint Select Committee which recommended sweeping changes to donation laws. Rees also banned donations from property developers to the NSW Labor Party.

On 3 December 2009, Rees was forced to face a spill motion at a caucus meeting. The motion passed 43 to 25. In the subsequent leadership vote, the dominant right faction threw its support to Planning Minister Kristina Keneally, who defeated Rees by 47 votes to 21. Earlier that day, Rees said at a press conference, "I will not hand over New South Wales to Eddie Obeid or Joe Tripodi" and that if someone were to replace him by the end of the day "they will be a puppet of Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid". Rees is the first New South Wales Labor Party Premier not to lead the party into an election. On 22 October 2010, Rees was granted by the Governor retention of the title "The Honourable".

Rees is a non-practising Roman Catholic and proudly describes himself as "a westie". He met his wife, Stacey Haines, at Northmead High School when they were both aged 14. Rees and Haines married in a ceremony at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau in New York City on 7 January 2009. In 2013 Nathan admitted to an extra marital affair.

Rees replaced Morris Iemma as Premier and party leader on 5 September 2008. At 40 years and 206 days of age, Rees became the youngest person to assume the office. On 3 December 2009, 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. He 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. To date, he is also the most recent premier of an Australian state not to contest a general election.

In July 2008, he was touted by the Sydney media as being a contender for Premier. Rees denied that he was a contender for the role, saying that "Premier Iemma has my rock-solid, unequivocal support and he knows that". Two months after this interview, Morris Iemma was deposed as Premier in favour of Rees.

Iemma resigned on 5 September 2008 after his own Right faction rebuffed his plans to reshuffle the Cabinet. However, the Right had no credible replacement candidate. It thus agreed to support Rees, a member of the Socialist Left faction. Thus, later in the day, Rees was unanimously elected Labor leader, and hence Premier. He 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. Carmel Tebbutt was elected unanimously as Deputy Leader, and thus Deputy Premier. The following Monday, 8 September, Rees was also sworn in as Minister for the Arts.

A slump in revenues associated with the recent global financial crisis compelled Rees and the State Treasurer Eric Roozendaal to implement a mini-budget which was handed down on 11 November 2008. The mini-budget increased taxes and charges such as land tax, mineral royalties, parking space levies and also announced the privatisation of state assets. A universal scheme providing free travel on public transport for all students going to and from school was curtailed – a decision since reversed – and the previously announced North West Metro and South West rail projects were indefinitely postponed. A series of by-elections to replace former Premier Morris Iemma, Deputy Premier John Watkins and Health Minister Reba Meagher resulted in massive swings against the government and saw John Watkins' former seat of Ryde resoundingly lost to the Liberals.

Rees took over as Premier on 5 September 2008. Eleven days later Lehman Brothers, a financial giant based in the United States, collapsed and precipitated the global financial crisis.

The Rees government responded to the crisis with a three-point plan. Firstly, Rees reaffirmed his government's commitment to the retention of a Triple A credit rating. 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, Rees announced there would be a mini-budget which was delivered in November 2008. The mini-budget delayed a number of large scale capital works projects with long lead times and instead emphasised capital expenditure on smaller projects which could generate employment more quickly. Third, Rees drew industry and business leaders together to conduct a job summit. This summit was co-chaired by Roger Corbett, Steve Harkins and David Gonski. In addition to the Work Plan developed by the summit, Rees also announced the establishment of 4,000 government apprenticeships across the state and 2,000 cadetships.

He 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.

He subsequently worked for Ministers Craig Knowles and Morris Iemma, and as chief of staff for Minister Milton Orkopoulos. Rees transferred to the Premier's office in 2006, three months before Orkopoulos was charged with paedophilia. 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.

In his short period as Premier, Rees and his Education Minister, Verity Firth, made substantial changes to the NSW Education system. From 1998 to 2008, there had only been a slight increase in the retention rate for students remaining to complete Year 12, with significant inequality as measured by socio-economic status. In response, in January 2009, Rees announced that he would be increasing the minimum leaving age from 15 to 17 years.

Rees's first job in politics was in 1995, when he became an adviser to the then deputy premier Andrew Refshauge, for whom his mother, Frances, worked. During this period, Rees cycled between Bullaburra in the Blue Mountains, where he lived at the time, and central Sydney, a distance of more than 90 km (56 mi).

Nathan Rees (/r iː z / ) (born 12 February 1968) is a former Australian politician who served as the 41st Premier of New South Wales and parliamentary leader of the New South Wales division of the Labor Party from September 2008 to December 2009. Rees was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Toongabbie for Labor from 2007 to 2015.

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. He attended Northmead Creative and Performing Arts High School where he served as school captain. On leaving school he initially took up a horticultural apprenticeship and worked as a greenskeeper for Parramatta Council. Subsequently he went on to study English literature at the University of Sydney, attaining an honours degree in 1994, supporting himself by working as a garbage collector at the same council. During his time at the Council he became Secretary of the then Municipal and Shire Employees Union.