 john neil andrew, ao (born 7 june 1944) is a former australian politician. he was a liberal member of the australian house of representatives from march 1983 to october 2004, representing the division of wakefield, south australia. he was born in waikerie, south australia, and was a horticulturalist before entering politics. andrew was a councillor in the district council of waikerie from 1976â83, before being elected to the house of representatives in the 1983 federal election. having been for 15 years a little-known liberal backbencher, andrew 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, andrew was one of only two speakers (as of 2007) to be subjected to a motion of no confidence. in neither case was the motion successful. andrew previously represented a slice 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, territory that andrew did not know and that did not know him. at the same time, his hometown of waikerie was shifted to the neighboring seat of [
1944_births Delegates_to_the_1998_Australian_Constitutional_Convention Liberal_Party_of_Australia_politicians Living_people Members_of_the_Australian_House_of_Representatives Members_of_the_Australian_House_of_Representatives_for_Wakefield Officers_of_the_Order_of_Australia Speakers_of_the_Australian_House_of_Representatives