Barry Brill

Barry Edward Brill (born 22 October 1940) is a New Zealand lawyer and ex-politician. Brill was parliamentary under-secretary for Energy, Science and Technology, Regional Development and National Development in the Third National Government from 1978 to 1981.

Early life Brill was born in Te Awamutu on 22 October 1940, the son of Arnold and Clarice Brill, who were dairy farmers at Brills Road, near Kihikihi. He was educated at St Patrick's primary school in Te Awamutu and Sacred Heart College, Auckland. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1964 and graduated LL.M.(Hons) from Victoria University of Wellington in 1967. He later gained an M.ComLaw from University of Auckland and OPM from Harvard Business School (2000).

In February 1963, Brill married Pauline Hannon, and the couple would have five children. He instead stood for the electorate of Kapiti in the unsuccessfully, but won the seat in the . He was Chairman of the Statutes Revision Committee, the Pacific Islands Affairs Committee and the ad hoc Select Committees on Misuse of Drugs, and the Human Rights Commission Bill. In the , Brill initially lost the Kapiti electorate by 15 votes, but contested the result with an Electoral Petition in the High Court, and was ultimately declared the winner by 23 votes. He was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Energy, Science and Technology, Regional Development and National Development in the Third National Government from 1978 to 1981. In the he was defeated by Margaret Shields.

Brill stood for ACT New Zealand in Northland in the 2011 general election, where he received 0.83% of the candidate vote.

Business After leaving Parliament, Brill was appointed Wellington regional manager of Neil Cropper Ltd and General Manager Corporate Affairs for Wattie Industries Ltd (Watties). He then became chairman of Wattie International and Wattie Meat Activities Group. After Wattie merged with Goodman Group Ltd in 1987, he chaired the Diversified Activities Group of Goodman Fielder Wattie Ltd. During the 1980s, he was a director of NZSE-listed companies Waitaki International Ltd, Allflex Holdings Ltd, and Hawkes Bay Farmers Meat Co Ltd. He was also a director of the Martha Hill Gold Mine JV, Protech Engineering Ltd, Advanced Foods Ltd, Supercool Refrigeration Ltd, Agrico Developments Ltd, Amlamco Meats Ltd, Wattie Singapore Ltd, and Dynasty Foods (Thailand) Ltd. Since 2009, he has been Chairman of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. He acted for the New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust, a charitable organisation that took a judicial review against the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), alleging that New Zealand's century-long temperature record (the 7SS) was skewed by non-random adjustments. The Trust lost its case and was ordered to pay costs. Brill is a co-author of the subsequent scientific journal paper, de Freitas et al. (2014).

Travel In recent decades, Brill's major interest has been world travel. He has been to all the world's continents on multiple occasions and has so far visited over 192 out of the 194 UN countries. According to the 2020 databases of both Most Traveled People and Nomad Mania, he is the most widely travelled person currently resident in New Zealand while his wife is the most widely travelled New Zealand woman.

Honours and awards Brill was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal and the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.

Brill was appointed a justice of the peace in 1985.