Nelson was raised in South East, Western and Northern Queensland and joined the military at a young age, serving in the Australian Army as an operational signalman.

[8][9] Nelson returned to Queensland after the collapse of his marriage, and was preselected as the One Nation candidate for the seat of Tablelands for the 1998 election, challenging incumbent Mines and Energy Minister Tom Gilmore.

[11][12] He declared his priorities upon his election as being the abolition of mining lease fees, the reintroduction of the death penalty, opposition to Aboriginal native title and resisting the deregulation of the dairy industry.

[15] He caused some early controversy by calling for the legalisation of prostitution in Queensland, echoing the pro-sex industry position he had taken while president of the ACT branch, in sharp opposition to the stance of new party leader Feldman.

[19] Along with several other One Nation MPs, he used his inaugural speech to parliament on 30 July to declare his intent to pursue further investigation of the Heiner affair, the alleged 1990 shredding of documents relating to a child abuse inquiry during the Goss Labor government.

[22] He was repeatedly critical of the anti-immigrant party being labelled as racist, but was himself accused of racism after claiming that there were "Aboriginal children lying drunk in the gutter" in the north Queensland town of Mareeba.

[37] He was a vocal opponent of the Beattie government's decision to apologise to the victims of the Stolen Generation in May 1999, and repeatedly interjected during the reading of the apology motion into the parliamentary record, defying the speaker's orders to resume his seat.

[39] Nelson became the first MP in four years to be suspended from parliament in July 1999 after repeatedly defying the speaker's calls for order during a vocal parliamentary attack on then-health minister Wendy Edmond.

[40] Nelson continued to maintain a reputation as a conservative maverick as an independent MP, and in September 1999, called for the introduction of conscription for the long-term unemployed to supplement Australia's then-peacekeeping operation in East Timor.