28 Facts About Fiona Nash

Fiona Joy Nash is an Australian former politician.

Fiona Nash served as a Senator for New South Wales from 2005 to 2017, representing the National Party.

Fiona Nash was the party's deputy leader from 2016 to 2017 and was a cabinet minister in the Turnbull government.

Fiona Nash was elected to the Senate at the 2004 federal election.

Fiona Nash was an assistant minister in the Abbott government from 2013 to 2015.

Fiona Nash was elevated to cabinet upon her election as deputy leader of the National Party in February 2016, the first woman to hold the position.

Fiona Nash was born in Sydney on 6 May 1965, the daughter of Joy Stuart and Raemond Lothian Morton; her mother was born in Sydney and her father was born in Scotland.

Fiona Nash's parents met in the UK where her mother was working as a doctor, moving to Australia in the early 1960s.

Fiona Nash completed a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies at the Mitchell College of Advanced Education.

Fiona Nash was elected to the party's New South Wales state council in 1997 and to the state executive in 1999.

Fiona Nash was a delegate to the federal council from 2002 and treasurer of the women's federal council.

Between 1999 and 2004, Fiona Nash worked as a staffer for National Party federal ministers Mark Vaile, Larry Anthony, and De-Anne Kelly.

Fiona Nash was elected to the Senate at the 2004 federal election, to a term beginning on 1 July 2005.

Fiona Nash was only the third woman from her party elected to the Senate, after Agnes Robertson and Florence Bjelke-Petersen.

Fiona Nash did so, and subsequently crossed the floor with four other National senators to vote for the motion.

Fiona Nash was appointed Minister for Rural Health on 21 September 2015, when Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott as prime minister.

On 11 February 2016, Fiona Nash was elected deputy leader of the National Party, the first woman to hold the position.

Fiona Nash replaced Barnaby Joyce, who had succeeded Warren Truss as party leader upon his retirement.

Fiona Nash was consequently appointed to cabinet and given the additional portfolios of Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Regional Communications.

Fiona Nash was appointed Minister for Local Government and Territories on 19 July 2016.

On 17 August 2017, Fiona Nash became embroiled in the Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, when she informed the Senate that she had received advice that she was a British citizen.

Fiona Nash's citizenship had been acquired at birth, by descent from her Scottish-born father.

Fiona Nash completed a declaration of renunciation of British citizenship on 18 August 2017.

Fiona Nash's 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 Fiona Nash had been ineligible to have been elected.

Fiona Nash took the role of Strategic Adviser, Regional Development at Charles Sturt University in early 2018.

In December 2021, Fiona Nash was appointed as Australia's first Regional Education Commissioner by the Morrison government, with the objective of championing greater equity between regional and city education.

Fiona Nash has two sons with her husband David Fiona Nash, whom she married in 1989.