The Attorney General of New South Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown

Law Officers of the Crown

The Law Officers of the Crown are the chief legal advisers to the Crown, and advise and represent the various governments in the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms. In England and Wales, Northern Ireland and most Commonwealth and colonial governments, the chief law officer of the...

. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General of New South Wales and Crown Solicitor, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. The current Attorney General is Greg Smith SC, MP of the Liberal Party of Australia

Liberal Party of Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...

.

The position of Attorney General

Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 has existed since 1824, well before the full establishment of the New South Wales Parliament but coinciding with the establishment of the New South Wales Legislative Council

New South Wales Legislative Council

The New South Wales Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of New South Wales in Australia. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney. The Assembly is referred to as the lower house and the Council as...

. From the beginning, the Attorney General has been the Crown's advisor and representative in legal matters. Today prosecutions are carried out by the Public Prosecution Office and most legal advice to government departments is provided by the Government Legal Service, both under the supervision of the Attorney General. The Attorney General heads the New South Wales Department of Attorney General and Justice and has responsibility for the all state's courts and tribunals.

List of Attorneys General

Ordinal	Attorney General	Party affiliation	Period
1	Saxe Bannister	None	1824–1826
2	William Moore		1826–1827
3	Alexander Baxter		1827–1831
–	William Moore		1831
4	John Kinchela		1831–1836
5	John Plunkett John Plunkett John Hubert Plunkett was Attorney-General of New South Wales and elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly.-Early life:...		1836–1856
6	William Manning William Montagu Manning Sir William Montagu Manning KCMG LLD was an English-born Australian politician, judge and University of Sydney chancellor.-Early life:...		1856
7	James Martin James Martin (Australian politician) Sir James Martin, KCB, QC was three times Premier of New South Wales, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1873 to 1886.-Early career:...		1856
–	William Manning		1856–1857
8	John Darvall John Darvall John Darvall was an Australian barrister and politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1844 and 1856 and again between 1861 and 1863. He was also a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for three periods between 1856 and 1865...		1857
–	James Martin		1857–1858
9	Alfred Lutwyche		1858–1859
10	Lyttelton Bayley		1859
11	Edward Wise Edward Wise Edward Wise was a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.Wise was born in England, educated at Rugby School, and called to the bar in 1844. He went to Sydney, Australia in 1855 and soon afterward entered politics...		1859–1860
–	William Manning		1860
12	John Hargrave John Hargrave (jurist) John Fletcher Hargrave was an Australian politician and judge.Hargrave was born to Joshua Hargrave and Sarah Hargrave at Greenwich, England. His father was a hardware merchant. He was educated at King's College, London in 1830 winning a certificate of honour for rhetoric...		1860–1863
–	John Darvall		1863
–	James Martin		1863–1865
–	John Darvall		1865
–	John Plunkett		1865–1866
–	James Martin		1866–1868
–	William Manning		1868–1870
–	James Martin		1870–1872
13	Edward Butler		1872–1873
14	Joseph Innes		1873–1875
15	William Bede Dalley William Bede Dalley William Bede Dalley was an Australian politician and barrister and the first Australian appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom...		1875–1877
16	William Charles Windeyer William Charles Windeyer Sir William Charles Windeyer was an Australian politician and judge.As a New South Wales politician he was responsible for the creation of Belmore Park , Lang Park , Observatory Park Sir William Charles Windeyer (29 September 1834 – 11 September 1897) was an Australian politician and judge.As a...		1877
–	William Bede Dalley		1877
17	William Foster		1877–1878
–	William Charles Windeyer		1878–1879
18	Robert Wisdom		1879–1883
–	William Bede Dalley		1883–1885
19	John Henry Want John Henry Want John Henry Want was an Australian barrister and politician, as well as the 19th Attorney-General of New South Wales.-Early life:...		1885
20	George Bowen Simpson		1885–1886
–	John Henry Want	Protectionist Protectionist Party The Protectionist Party was an Australian political party, formally organised from 1889 until 1909, with policies centred on protectionism. It argued that Australia needed protective tariffs to allow Australian industry to grow and provide employment. It had its greatest strength in Victoria and in...	1886–1887
–	William Foster	Free Trade Free Trade Party The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states and renamed the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906, was an Australian political party, formally organised between 1889 and 1909...	1887
20	Bernhard Wise		1887–1888
–	George Bowen Simpson		1888–1889
21	Edmund Barton Edmund Barton Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....	Protectionist	1889
–	George Bowen Simpson	Free Trade Free Trade Party The Free Trade Party which was officially known as the Australian Free Trade and Liberal Association, also referred to as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states and renamed the Anti-Socialist Party in 1906, was an Australian political party, formally organised between 1889 and 1909...	1889–1891
–	Edmund Barton	Protectionist	1891–1893
22	Charles Heydon		1893–1894
–	George Bowen Simpson	Free Trade	1894
–	John Henry Want		1894–1899
23	George Reid George Reid (Australian politician) Sir George Houstoun Reid, GCB, GCMG, KC was an Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales and the fourth Prime Minister of Australia....		1899
–	Bernhard Wise	Protectionist	1899–1904
24	James Gannon	Progressive	1904
25	Charles Wade Charles Wade Sir Charles Gregory Wade KCMG was Premier of New South Wales 2 October 1907 – 21 October 1910. According to Percival Serle, "Wade was a public-spirited man of high character...	Liberal Reform Liberal Reform Party (Australia) The Liberal Reform Party was an Australian political party, active in New South Wales state politics between 1901 and 1916. The question of tariff policy which, had created and divided the Free Trade Party and Protectionist Party in New South Wales in the 1890s, became a federal issue at the time...	1904–1907
		Liberal Commonwealth Liberal Party The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1916, shortly after federation....	1907–1910
26	William Holman William Holman William Arthur Holman was an Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, Australia, who split with the party on the conscription issue in 1916 during World War I, and immediately became Premier of a conservative Nationalist Party Government.-Early life:Holman was born in St Pancras, London,...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1910–1914
27	David Hall David Hall (Australian politician) David Robert Hall was an Australian politician.Hall was born in Harrietville, Victoria, and studied law at the University of Sydney before becoming a barrister in 1903...		1914–1916
		Nationalist Nationalist Party of Australia The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...	1916–1919
28	John Garland		1919–1920
29	Edward McTiernan Edward McTiernan Sir Edward Aloysius McTiernan, KBE , was an Australian jurist, lawyer and politician. He served as an Australian Labor Party member of both the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and federal House of Representatives before being appointed to the High Court of Australia in 1930...	Labor	1920–1921
30	Thomas Bavin	Nationalist	1921
–	Edward McTiernan	Labor	1921–1922
–	Thomas Bavin	Nationalist	1922–1925
–	Edward McTiernan	Labor	1925–1927
31	Andrew Lysaght Andrew Lysaght, junior Andrew Augustus Lysaght was an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1925 until 1933, representing the electorate of Bulli...		1927
32	Francis Boyce	Nationalist	1927–1930
–	Andrew Lysaght	Labor	1930–1931
33	Joseph Lamaro		1931–1932
34	Daniel Levy	United Australia United Australia Party The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...	1932
35	Henry Manning		1932–1941
36	Clarrie Martin Clarrie Martin Major Clarence Edward Martin was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1930 until 1932 and from 1939 until his death in 1953. He was variously a member of the Australian Labor Party , the Industrial Labor Party and the Australian Labor Party...	Labor	1941–1953
37	Bill Sheahan		1953–1956
38	Reg Downing		1956–1965
39	Ken McCaw Ken McCaw Sir Kenneth Malcolm McCaw QC , an Australian politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Lane Cove for the Liberal Party of Australia from 1947 until his retirement from political office in 1975...	Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	1965–1975
40	John Maddison John Maddison John Clarkson Maddison, was a New South Wales politician, Attorney General, Minister for Justice and Deputy Leader for the Liberal Party of New South Wales in the cabinets of Robert Askin, Tom Lewis and Sir Eric Willis until the Liberal party lost the 1976 election...		1975–1976
41	Frank Walker	Labor	1976–1983
42	Paul Landa Paul Landa David Paul Landa, QC was an Australian politician. He was a Labor member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1973 to 1984, and the member for Peats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1984...		1983–1984
43	Neville Wran Neville Wran Neville Kenneth Wran, AC, CNZM, QC was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 until 1986. He was National President of the Australian Labor Party from 1980 to 1986 and Chairman of both the Lionel Murphy Foundation and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation from 1986...		1984
44	Terry Sheahan Terry Sheahan Terence William "Terry" Sheahan, AO is an Australian judge and former politician. He was the Labor member for Burrinjuck in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1973 to 1988, and held various ministerial portfolios between 1980 and 1988, and currently sits as a judge on the New South...		1984–1987
45	Ron Mulock Ron Mulock Ronald Joseph "Ron" Mulock was an Australian politician and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.-Early years:...		1987–1988
46	John Dowd John Dowd (politician) John Robert Arthur Dowd AO QC , a former Australian politician and jurist, is the Chancellor of Southern Cross University and the President of ActionAid Australia, an international aid organisation.-Early years and background:...	Liberal	1988–1991
47	Peter Collins Peter Collins (Australian politician) Peter Edward James Collins, AM, RFD, QC was the Leader of the Opposition in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 4 April 1995 to 8 December 1998.-Early years and background:...		1991–1992
48	John Hannaford John Hannaford John Planta Hannaford is a former Australian politician. Born in Goulburn, the son of William Henry Planta and Amy Frances Hannaford, he became a lawyer, having studied at the Australian National University in Canberra. He commenced legal articles in 1971...		1992–1995
49	Jeff Shaw Jeff Shaw (politician) Jeffrey William "Jeff" Shaw, QC was an Australian lawyer, judge and former Attorney General of New South Wales.-Early life and education:...	Labor	1995–2000
50	Bob Debus Bob Debus Robert John "Bob" Debus AM , a former Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives and the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the Australian Labor Party. Debus has been a minister in both the Australian and New South Wales governments...		2000–2007
51	John Hatzistergos John Hatzistergos John Hatzistergos is a former Australian politician who was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council representing the Australian Labor Party between 1999 and 2011...		2007–2011
52	Greg Smith	Liberal	2011–present

External links

• New South Wales Attorney General's Department website