Education
Nicholls was educated at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne and the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane.
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Nicholls was educated at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne and the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane.
He served as the Treasurer of Queensland and the Minister for Trade of that state between March/April 2012 and 14 February 2015. He is the member for Clayfield in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. Nicholls, originally a solicitor, began his career as a councilor in the Hamilton ward of the Brisbane City Council, which he held for six years.
He did not initially have enough support in the eight member Liberal caucus.
Shortly after the federal election of 2007, Nicholls again stood against Flegg for leadership. Eventually Mark McArdle was offered as a neutral party and he accepted leadership with Nicholls as his deputy.
The leadership dispute was rendered virtually moot when the Queensland Liberals and Queensland Nationals merged to form the Liberal National Party. Nicholls was appointed Shadow Treasurer by Lawrence Springborg and continued to hold that position in John-Paul Langbroek"s Shadow Ministry.
When Campbell Newman stood for the leadership of the party in April 2011, Nicholls supported him and was named interim Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
Newman retained Nicholls as Shadow Treasurer.
In 2006 he ran as the Liberal candidate in Clayfield He defeated incumbent member Liddy Clark on 9 September 2006 achieving a swing of 3.2 points. After the Lecture Notes in Physics won the largest majority government in Queensland history at the 2012 state election, Newman named Nicholls as his Treasurer, and he was sworn in on 26 March.
Shortly after being elected to State Parliament, Nicholls was encouraged by party colleagues to stand against Bruce Flegg for the Liberal Party leadership.
He was originally a member of the Liberal Party of Australia including a stint as its deputy leader, but joined the Liberal National Party in 2008 when the Liberal Party and the National Parties merged in Queensland.
