Federal member for Gippsland Darren Chester has emerged as a surprise beneficiary of the High Court’s decision to rule former Senator Fiona Nash ineligible to sit in parliament, receiving some of her portfolios.
On Friday afternoon, Mr Chester was sworn in as minister for regional development and local government and territories.
Ms Nash was one of the so-called “citizenship seven” group of MPs whose election was referred to the High Court after it was discovered they had dual citizenship.
The former NSW senator, along with former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, Greens Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlum and One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts were all ruled ineligible by the court.