Nat Cook

Natalie Fleur Cook is an Australian politician and anti-violence campaigner. She is Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly. She became an anti-violence campaigner after the death of her son in a one-punch attack in 2008. Cook was a member of the Labor before being made Speaker in on 25 March 2026.

She has represented Hurtle Vale since the 2018 state election. She previously represented Fisher after winning the 2014 by-election, vacated by the death of independent member Bob Such, until it was abolished in the 2018 election. Cook served as the Minister for Human Services from March 2022, and in March 2024 as Minister for Seniors and Ageing Well in the Malinauskas ministry , until being appointed Speaker.

Cook was previously the Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Urban Development from September 2017 until Labor's loss at the 2018 election, after which she was the Shadow Minister for Human Services in the Malinauskas shadow ministry.

Early life and education Natalie Fleur Cook was born in Adelaide, South Australia, to first-generation English migrants, the youngest daughter of three children, and grew up in Morphett Vale, a southern Adelaide suburb.

Cook attended her local primary school, Flaxmill Primary School, and later went to Mitcham Girls High School.

Pre-parliamentary career Prior to being elected to the South Australian Parliament in 2014, Cook worked for nearly 30 years as a Registered Nurse, including as an After-Hours Hospital Coordinator, Retrieval, and Intensive-Care Nurse. Her training began at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she joined the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF). She had to leave the Labor Party and become independent in order to fulfil her role.

Cook married her longtime partner Neil Davis in 2003. they had lived in the same home in Woodcroft for nearly 30 years.