Hon Stuart Nash

Former New Zealand Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash will stand for New Zealand First in the Napier electorate for the 2026 general election.

Stuart was born and raised in Napier before heading away to university, where he gained a Master's Degree in Law, Forestry Science, and Management. He went on to hold senior management roles across both the private and public sectors, and later co-founded bespoke consultancy firm, Nash Kelly Global.

Stuart first entered Parliament as a list MP in 2008 before winning the Napier electorate in 2014, a seat he held until 2023. On Labour's return to government in 2017 he was appointed to Cabinet with the Police, Revenue, Small Business and Fisheries portfolios. Re-elected in 2020, he took on Economic and Regional Development, Forestry and Tourism while retaining Small Business.  For five years he also chaired the OECD's SME Working Group.

The great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, Stuart pairs a deep multi-generational Hawke's Bay connection with ministerial experience spanning economic, security and primary-sector policy.

Having watched Labour drift from the values its founders once stood for, he now believes New Zealand First is the party best placed to focus on the issues that matter most to hard-working New Zealanders through solution-focused and pragmatic policy development and implementation.