I've just asked Nathan about this.
We should clarify that this is primarily about membership of the Inkscape Board and answering questions posted to inkscape-board (see archives at http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=inkscape-board).
Looking at the archives should give a better idea of who should take Nathan's place.
Btw, the reason for Nathan mentioning my being "an Aussie" in his reasons for nominating me is mainly about ensuring non-north-american representation on the board: all the other board members are North American, I believe. I note that this reason applies to the other two people nominated so far, Johan Engelen (Netherlands according to ohloh entry) and arguably Bulia Byak (who I believe is now Canadian but can nevertheless offer a non-Canadian / non-North-American perspective). While considering this criterion, I should note that I believe both have more exposure to the thought/culture of non-English-speakers than I.
An important argument against me being on the Board is just that my involvement in Inkscape is rather limited these days.
Also, I hesitate to accept because I know I'm very slow at writing. The giving of lots of thought to what I write is no doubt one reason behind Nathan nominating me, but OTOH this writing style means I tend to avoid replying to things at all.
Relevant excerpt of chat with Nathan just now:
11:53:20 pjrm: I ask you about it in order to decide whether to accept the nomination 11:53:30 njh: There isn't much to it 11:53:34 njh: a few emails a month 11:53:39 njh: licence issues 11:53:43 njh: that sort of thing 11:53:45 pjrm: E.g. would bbyak or Johan Engelen be better 11:53:51 njh: I think you would be great 11:54:03 njh: because you are very good at asking the right questions 11:54:19 njh: and I think the board needs more non-north american bias ... 12:53:45 pjrm: I'm just about to post the following to inkscape-devel. Can you comment; in particular, do you wish to make any edits to the transcript before I make it public? 12:54:43 pjrm: [Draft of this message.] 12:55:00 njh: one thing which I think makes you ideally suited to the rôle is the fact that you think things through so carefully 12:57:00 njh: I do think that your anal retentive attention to detail is an important point too 12:57:10 njh: (you can put that in your email if you want :)
For those that don't know, Nathan & I have shared an office for the past few years, which on the one hand means he knows me quite well, while on the other hand means he may be biased towards me for reasons related to friendship etc.
A general remark on the question of who should become a member of the board: time spent with board things does detract from time spent on development (whether of Inkscape or other things). We might consider not just how well someone can handle board duties but also whether it's the best use of their time/skills.
Based on Nathan's confidence, I accept the nomination; but I'm sure no-one (not I in particular) would stand in the way of Bulia if he wished to be on the board. [Sorry Aaron for use of logical control structure!]
pjrm.