RSL National President

Major General Greg Melick AO RFD FANZCN KC (Retd)

National President of the Returned & Services League of Australia

Greg Melick has served the League as National President since 2019. He was reelected in 2022.

Greg Melick is the son of a WWII veteran, so you could say that service is in his blood.

In 1966 Greg began his 52 years of service with the Army Reserve where he has commanded at all levels – from Section to Brigade, before being promoted to Major General and becoming Australia’s most senior Reserve Officer in 2007. He later became the Head of the Centenary of the Anzac Planning Team from 2011-2018.

Originally from Newcastle NSW, Greg was admitted to the bar in NSW in 1975, then posted to Tasmania in 1977 as ADC to the governor, Sir Stanley Burbury. He has built his life in Tasmania, pursuing a successful legal career, and is now a Hobart-based Senior Counsel.  He has appeared for and/or advised, often pro bono, many veterans and police officers who have suffered mental trauma arising from their service.

Greg served seven years as a non-commissioned officer prior to commissioning. He has served in the following Army Units:

• 2nd Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment,

• 1st Commando Company,

• 40th Independent Rifle Company,

• 12th/40th Battalion, Royal Tasmania Regiment,

• 6th Training Group,

• 8th Brigade.

Greg is the Colonel Commandant of the 1st Commando Regiment and President of the Australian Commando Association. He has been a Principal Crown Counsel in the Tasmanian Crown Law Office, and a Statutory Member of the National Crime Authority and the NSW Casino Control Authority.

He was appointed a part-time Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in September 2014 and part- time Chief Commissioner of the Tasmanian Integrity Commission in 2015.

He has conducted several investigations, including the Beaconsfield mine collapse and the COVID 19 outbreak in NW Tasmania.

He was appointed Cricket Australia’s Anti-Corruption Special Investigator in 2000.

Greg was elected President of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law in 2017 and is a former Chairman of the Board of St John Ambulance (Tasmania).

He has been a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial since 2015 and is also a Patron of Friends of the 2nd Infantry Battalions, Army Museum Tasmania and Cricket ADF.

Greg lives with his wife, Michelle, on their vineyard outside of Hobart and assists in various wine-tasting and judging roles. They have three adult children, the eldest of whom is a police officer and one of whom was deployed twice during his 10 years of Reserve service. He is an avid cricket and rugby supporter and enjoys studying military history.