12 Facts About Neil Andrew

John Neil Andrew was born on 7 June 1944 and is a former Australian politician.

Neil Andrew served in the House of Representatives for over 20 years from 1983 to 2004 representing the Division of Wakefield in South Australia for the Liberal Party.

Neil Andrew became the 24th Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1998, a position he held until 2004.

Neil Andrew was a councillor in the District Council of Waikerie from 1976 to 1983.

Neil Andrew was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1983 federal election.

Neil Andrew presided over the House during the special sitting in May 2001 to mark the centenary of the Parliament of Australia, which met in the Victorian Legislative Assembly after meeting in the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, as did the first Parliament in 1901.

Subsequently, Neil Andrew sponsored measures to reform the Parliament's administration, conducting sensitive private and public briefings, and providing moral support in the maneuvering of reform proposals through the Australian Senate.

Neil Andrew's efforts resulted in the success of reforms which had been advocated on at least a dozen occasions, without success over the previous 90 years, starting with Prime Minister Fisher in 1910.

Neil Andrew previously represented a large swath of rural territory north of Adelaide.

Neil 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.

Neil 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.

Neil Andrew was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2006.