Fiona Nash


Fiona Joy Nash is a former Australian politician. She represented the National Party of Australia in the Australian Senate for the state of New South Wales from 1 July 2005 and served as the Deputy Leader of the Nationals in the Parliament of Australia from 11 February 2016, having previously served as the party's deputy Senate leader since 2008.
In the Turnbull Government, Nash served as the Minister for Local Government and Territories from 19 July 2016, and the Minister for Regional Development, and the Minister for Regional Communications from 18 February 2016 to 27 October 2017. Nash had previously served as the Minister for Rural Health between 21 September 2015 and 19 July 2016, and as the Assistant Minister for Health in the Abbott Government between 18 September 2013 and 21 September 2015.
On 27 October 2017, the High Court of Australia found Nash to be ineligible to have been elected, due to holding British citizenship inherited from her father at the time of the 2016 federal election.

Career

Between 1999 and 2004, she worked as staff member for National Party federal ministers, Mark Vaile, Larry Anthony, and De-Anne Kelly before her election to the Senate. In 2008, she was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation on the Opposition frontbench, but was asked to resign by Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull when she expressed her support for a motion by the Australian Greens to block the introduction of up-front tax breaks for carbon sinks. She did so, and subsequently crossed the floor with four other National senators to vote for the motion. After the 2010 election she returned to the Opposition frontbench when appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in September 2010.
Following the 2013 federal election, Nash was appointed as Assistant Minister for Health in the Abbott Government. In February 2014 she came under scrutiny after it was revealed that her chief of staff, Alastair Furnival, held shares in a lobby group, which culminated with his resignation the same month. In March the Senate formally censured Nash after she missed a deadline to produce a letter Furnival apparently wrote, outlining how he would avoid conflicts of interest, given that his wife owned a lobbying company, Australian Public Affairs, which represented junk food clients.
On 17 August 2017, Nash became embroiled in the 2017 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, when she informed the Senate that she had received advice that she was a British citizen. Her citizenship had been acquired at birth, by descent from her Scottish-born father. She completed a declaration of renunciation of British citizenship on 18 August 2017. Her eligibility was considered by the High Court of Australia alongside numerous other cases of potential breaches of Section 44 of the Australian Constitution. On 27 October 2017, the court ruled that Nash had been ineligible to have been elected.
Nash is taking up the role of Strategic Adviser, Regional Development at Charles Sturt University.

Personal life

Nash was born in Sydney and was educated at Mitchell College of Advanced Education in Bathurst, New South Wales, where she graduated in arts. Nash is married to David Nash, a farmer, and they have two sons. They live in the Young district in the south-west region of southern New South Wales.