Stuart Alexander Nash (born August 1967) is a politician from New Zealand. He was a

list A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...

member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for the Labour Party from to 2011, and was re-elected in the as representative of the Napier electorate. He entered Cabinet in October 2017, with the portfolios of Police, Revenue, Small Business and

Fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, ...

. Nash is the great-grandson of

Sir Walter Nash Sir Walter Nash (12 February 1882 – 4 June 1968) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 27th prime minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. He is noted for his long period of political service, hav ...

, 27th Prime Minister of New Zealand in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960.

Professional life

Born in Napier and educated at

Napier Boys' High School Napier Boys' High School is a secondary boys' school in, Napier, New Zealand. It currently has a school roll of approximately pupils. The school provides education from Year 9 to Year 13. Notable alumni Business * Rod Drury – chief execut ...

, Nash holds master's degrees in Law, Forestry Science and Management from the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

. Before moving back to his home town of Napier, he was the Director of Strategic Development at

Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...

Political career

Early political career

In Nash was the Labour candidate for the safe National seat of

Epsom Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...

, placing third behind

Rodney Hide Rodney Philip Hide (born 16 December 1956) is a former New Zealand politician of the ACT New Zealand party. Hide was a Member of Parliament for ACT from 1996 until 2011, was ACT's leader between 2004 and 2011, and represented the constituency f ...

and

Richard Worth Richard Westwood Worth (3 July 1948 – 10 May 2022) was a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand National Party. He was the Member of Parliament for Epsom from 1999 to 2005 and a list MP from 2005 to 2009. Prior to entering Parliament, W ...

; having been directed by then-Prime Minister

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

to ask Labour supporters to vote for the National candidate, Richard Worth, in a strategy designed to defeat ACT MP, Rodney Hide. The tactic didn't work, with Hide winning; though at 9,915 Labour received the highest number of party votes in this electorate at any time under the MMP parliamentary system. Placed at number 60 on the

party list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

, Nash failed to get elected.

Election to Parliament on the list

In 2007 Nash contested the Labour Party selection for the Napier seat in the 2008 general election, but lost to

Russell Fairbrother Elwin Russell Fairbrother is a lawyer and former New Zealand politician. He was a Labour Party Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2008. Early years Fairbrother, who is commonly known by his middle name, was born into a truck driving family an ...

, a list MP and the former Napier electorate MP. However Nash was ranked at number 36 on the party list and was subsequently elected to parliament. After becoming a list MP Nash was appointed Labour's spokesperson for Revenue, and associate spokesperson for Trade and Forestry by

Labour leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of th ...

Phil Goff Philip Bruce Goff (born 22 June 1953) is a New Zealand politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 2016. He served as leader of the Labour Party and leader of the Opposition between 11 N ...

. On 15 June 2010, Opposition Leader

appointed Nash to be portfolio spokesperson for Forestry, a position formerly held by Mita Ririnui. In February 2011

announced his new caucus line up and Nash was ranked 27th, retaining all his portfolio responsibilities.

2011–2014

In the 2011 general election, Nash contested the Napier electorate seat held by National Cabinet Minister

Chris Tremain Christopher James Tremain (born 1966) is a New Zealand businessman and retired politician. He served as member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the National Party from until his retirement in 2014. Family and personal life B ...

. Nash reduced Tremain's 2008 majority of 9,018 votes by 5,300 votes (the highest reduction achieved against a sitting National electorate MP) but still came second. As well, Nash was ranked 27 on the Labour list, higher than in 2008 but not high enough on the Labour list to return to Parliament as a List MP. After leaving Parliament, Nash signed on as the chief-of-staff for newly appointed party leader

David Shearer David James Shearer (born 28 July 1957) is a New Zealand United Nations worker and politician. He was a member of the New Zealand Parliament for the Labour Party from 2009 to 2016, serving as Leader of the Opposition from 2011 to 2013. Shear ...

. However, Nash resigned after just four months into the job and returned to his home town of Napier, citing the birth of his new child and focusing on winning back the electorate there.

2014–current: return to Parliament

In February 2014, Nash was selected as Labour's candidate for Napier to contest the 2014 general election. National's Tremain had retired and was succeeded by Wayne Walford, and Nash had a majority of 3,850 votes over Walford. The electorate was also contested by

Garth McVicar Garth Neil McVicar (born ) is a New Zealand political lobbyist who founded the Sensible Sentencing Trust (SST) law-and-order advocacy group in 2001. In August 2014, he stood down from SST to focus on a campaign for election to Parliament. McVica ...

for the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, and McVicar's 7,603 votes cut into traditional National Party votes. Nash retained the Napier electorate in , increasing his majority and becoming only the second Labour MP after Damien O'Connor to win and hold a seat off the National party this century. Nash was elected as a Cabinet Minister by the Labour Party caucus following Labour's formation of a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

with

New Zealand First New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Win ...

and the Greens. On 26 October, he was appointed as Minister of Police, Revenue, Small Business and

. During the 2020 general election, Nash retained his seat in Napier by a final margin of 5,856. On 2 November 2020, Jacinda Ardern announced that Nash would be dropping the Police, Revenue and Fisheries portfolios, and would pick up the Economic and Regional Development,

Forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...

, and

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

portfolios, while retaining Small Business. In mid November 2021, Nash claimed that farming advocacy group Groundswell NZ's website promoted racism and

vaccine hesitancy Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...

in response to a question by ACT Member of Parliament Mark Cameron. When Cameron reiterated his question, Nash told Cameron to avoid posing with someone holding an anti-vaccination sign at a Groundswell protest. In response to Stuart's remarks, Groundswell co-founder Bryce McKenzie emphasised the group's efforts to combat racism and vaccine hesitancy among its ranks. McKenzie added that the group had accepted the resignation of Groundswell member and Tatua Dairy board of directors member Ross Townshend for posting an offensive image depicting

Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

Nanaia Mahuta Nanaia Cybele Mahuta (born 21 August 1970) is a New Zealand politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hauraki-Waikato and serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sixth Labour Government since 2020. She is also the Minister ...

as a gang member.

References

External links

*
Parliamentary webpage
, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Stuart 1967 births Living people New Zealand Labour Party MPs University of Auckland alumni University of Canterbury alumni New Zealand list MPs Unsuccessful candidates in the 2011 New Zealand general election Members of the New Zealand House of Representatives Unsuccessful candidates in the 2005 New Zealand general election 21st-century New Zealand politicians Candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Members of the Cabinet of New Zealand Candidates in the 2020 New Zealand general election