The former premier Nick Greiner has revealed that in 1989 when his government banned the use of chlorofluorocarbons in NSW, he and his cabinet barely understood what the chemicals were or how they hurt the ozone layer, but that at the time politicians were freer to take expert advice and act on it.

Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday after an event to mark the release of cabinet papers from the second year of his government – a period during which he began to forge his reputation as an activist technocratic leader – Mr Griener said governments and other institutions of authority used to enjoy more trust and complex information was less contested.

Nick Greiner celebrates an election win in March 1984.

As a result, the complex science presented to the cabinet about chlorofluorocarbons was accepted rather than challenged, he said.

Comparing his time in politics with today's environment Mr Greiner said he enjoyed “being allowed to govern”. “I was of the view that I should be allowed to act and if people did not like what I did they could vote me out,” he said.