Niall Mark Blair (born 22 May 1977) is a former

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n politician and was the former Deputy Leader of the New South Wales Nationals. Blair was a Nationals member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

from March 2011 until October 2019, when he retired from politics. He was the New South Wales Minister for Primary Industries from April 2015 until March 2019; the Minister for Trade and Industry and the Minister for Regional Water from January 2017 until March 2019 in the Berejiklian government.

Biography

Blair graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Western Sydney in 1997. He was a tree management officer with Marrickville Council from 1998 until 1999 and manager of parks and recreation for

Leeton Shire Leeton Shire is a local government area in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located adjacent to the Murrumbidgee River and falls within the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. The Shire includes the town of Leeton a ...

from 1999 until 2005. He attained a masters in occupational health and safety from the University of Newcastle in 2005, and subsequently worked as manager of technical training for Integral Energy from 2005 until 2006. He founded a Moss Vale workplace safety consultancy, Admire Workplace Safety, in 2006 and was its CEO until his election to parliament in 2011. Blair has been the chairman of the Nationals' Goulburn State Electoral Council since 2008, and was the Vice-Chairman of the Hume Federal Electoral Council from 2009 until 2010. He was preselected in April 2010 as the tenth candidate on the

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

Legislative Council ticket, and was easily elected in March 2011 as the Coalition swept to a near-record landslide victory. Following the 2015 state election, Blair was sworn in as the Minister for Primary Industries and the Minister for Lands and Water in the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

Baird Baird may refer to: Places United States * Baird, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Baird, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Baird, Texas, a city * Baird, Washington, a community * Baird Mountains, Alaska * Baird Inlet, Alaska ...

government. In January 2017 Blair was sworn in as the Minister for Primary Industries, the Minister for Trade and Industry, and the Minister for Regional Water in the Berejiklian government. Blair was re-elected to the Legislative Council at the 2019 state election on 23 March, but the next day announced his resignation from the Cabinet, and from the Legislative Council when a replacement could be found. After the Nationals confirmed

Sam Farraway Samuel Jacob Farraway (born 1986) is an Australian politician. Farraway has served as the Minister for Regional Transport and Roads in the Perrottet ministry since December 2021. He has been a National member of the New South Wales Legislative ...

as a replacement in September, Blair resigned from the Legislative Council on 16 October 2019. Blair did not renew his National Party membership in 2020.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Blair, Niall 1977 births Living people National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Western Sydney University alumni Australian people of Northern Ireland descent People from Goulburn University of Newcastle (Australia) alumni 21st-century Australian politicians

Biography

See also

References