Alexander George Neill (born 22 July 1950 in Dunedin, New Zealand) is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament for the National Party on three non-consecutive occasions between 1990 and 2002 and was later a member of the Canterbury Regional Council from 2003 until 2010. Early life and career Neill was born in Dunedin, the youngest son of Alf Neill QC, then a prominent barrister practising in Dunedin. Alec Neill was raised at Allans Beach on the Otago Peninsula, attended the Hoopers Inlet Primary School and then attended St Kevin's College, Oamaru, and the University of Otago where he graduated with an LLB. He commenced his law career with Ross Dowling Marquet and Griffen in Dunedin before shifting to Oamaru in 1974, joining solicitors George Berry and Evan Alty in the firm of Hjorring Tait and Farrell. Neill became a partner on 1 May 1976 (then aged 25) and the firm was rebranded as Berry Alty and Neill. He remained a partner of the firm until elected to Parliament in 1990. After losing the 1996 election he relocated to Christchurch in 1997 and returned to legal practice. Neill is married to Diane and they have a blended family of five children. Member of Parliament Jim Sutton of the Labour Party had won the Waitaki electorate in 1984 and 1987, though only by 89 votes on the second occasion. Neill was selected as the new National candidate for the 1990 election. He defeated Sutton, who was by that time the Minister of Agriculture, by 2,095 votes and was one of 27 National candidates who defeated Labour incumbents. He was comfortably re-elected in the 1993 election. Neill was never appointed to a ministerial position in the Fourth National Government, but he was the chairman of the Planning and Development Select Committee, which oversaw the passing of the Resource Management Act 1991 and the Justice and Law Reform Select Committee. The 1996 election was the first conducted under the mixed-member proportional (MMP) representation system. The existing 99 electorates under the previous first-past-the-post (FPP) voting system were reduced to 60 and Neill's Waitaki electorate was one of thise disestablished. He sought National's selection for the enlarged Otago electorate but lost to newcomer Gavan Herlihy. Neill stood as a list-only candidate in 1996 and 1999 but the party did not secure enough votes for his election on either occasion. Despite this,