Neil Andrew


John Neil Andrew is a former Australian politician. He served in the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2004, representing the Division of Wakefield for the Liberal Party. He was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2004.

Early life

Andrew was born in Waikerie, South Australia, and was a horticulturalist before entering politics. He was a councillor in the District Council of Waikerie from 1976 to 1983.

Politics

Andrew was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1983 federal election. Having been for 15 years a little-known Liberal backbencher, he became Speaker of the House after the October 1998 elections. He presided over the House during the special sitting in May 2001 to mark the centenary of the Parliament of Australia, which met in the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, as did the first Parliament in 1901. In 2003, he "named" Greens Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle after they interjected during George W. Bush's speech to Parliament.
Along with Leo McLeay and Bronwyn Bishop, Andrew was one of only three Speakers to be subjected to a motion of no confidence. In all cases these motions were unsuccessful as they were votes determined on party lines.
Andrew previously represented a large swath of rural territory north of Adelaide. However, a redistribution ahead of the 2004 elections pushed his seat well to the south to take in heavily pro-Labor northern Adelaide suburbs that had previously been in the safe Labor seat of Bonython. Meanwhile, most of his former rural territory was redistributed to neighbouring Grey and Barker. Andrew held his old seat with a comfortably safe majority of 14 percent, but the reconfigured Wakefield had a Labor majority of just over one percent. Prior to the new boundaries being announced, Andrew notified Prime Minister John Howard that he would not renominate for Wakefield in the upcoming election. He remained Speaker until David Hawker was elected to succeed him on 16 November.

Honours

Andrew was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2008 Australia Day Honours list "for service to the Parliament of Australia through the advancement of parliamentary administration and reform, and to the community in the areas of agricultural research, development and education" particularly as Chair of the Crawford Fund in Australia.
He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2006.