O'Connor was born in London, England, United Kingdom, to Irish parents and held Irish citizenship until 1995, when he became an Australian citizen. He was educated in Ireland and Australia, taking degrees in Arts and Law at Monash University. In 1995, he participated in the Harvard Trade Union Program at Harvard Law School, Harvard University. He is the brother of , National Secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. He firstly began his union career as an organiser with the now defunct Municipal Employees Union of Victoria; and was then appointed as Assistant National Secretary with the Australian Services Union before entering politics. O'Connor is a member of the National Left faction of the Australian Labor Party and is a member of the Socialist Left faction of the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party. At the time of his endorsement for Burke in 2001 he was aligned with the 'Independent Left', a breakaway group from the Socialist Left. This group included Julia Gillard. O'Connor has been a close ally of Julia Gillard since they were both involved in student politics during the 1980s along with Michael O'Connor. In 2015 the Independent Left rejoined the Socialist Left.
Political career
At the 2001 election, O'Connor was elected as the Member for Burke, When the division was abolished by the 2003 redistribution, O'Connor successfully contested the new electoral division of Gorton at the 2004 election. He does not live in his electorate but in neighbouring Calwell. In December 2005, he was elected to the position of Chair of the Federal Labor Industrial Relations Taskforce in a caucus ballot. The Taskforce investigated the adverse effects of the Howard Government's WorkChoices legislation, a controversial package of industrial relations changes. Shortly after the election of Kevin Rudd to the office of federal Labor leader and Leader of the Opposition on 4 December 2006, O'Connor was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations. Following the Labor victory at the 2007 federal election, Prime Minister Rudd announced that O'Connor would serve as the Minister for Employment Participation from 29 November 2007. As Minister he reformed the Job Network, replacing it with Job Services Australia. This streamlined seven separate employment services programs into a 'one-stop-shop' to provide job seekers with a more personalised service. On 6 June 2009, O'Connor was announced as the Minister for Home Affairs in the First Rudd Ministry, replacing Bob Debus who retired at the 2010 election. Following Labor's narrow victory, Prime Minister Julia Gillard allocated increased responsibilities to O'Connor. He became Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Justice and Minister for Privacy and Freedom of Information. In this portfolio, O'Connor enacted several key policy reforms including: new and tougher laws to protect children from being procured and groomed online, achieving consensus for an R18+ video game classification after 10 years of debate at Standing Committee of Attorney-General; and introducing significant reforms of the anti-dumping regime in 20 years. In December 2011, O'Connor became the Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting for School Education. On 5 March 2012, O'Connor was sworn in as Minister for Small Business, Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness. He was also promoted to Cabinetfor the first time, becoming the first small business minister in Cabinet for more than a decade. In this role O'Connor introduced the first Australian Small Business Commissioner, on 2 January 2013. On 30 August 2012, O'Connor and the Council of Australian Governments released the Housing Supply and Affordability Reform report, proposing reforms to increase housing affordability in Australia. On 4 February 2013, O'Connor was sworn in as Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. Following the June 2013 Labor leadership spill, O'Connor was appointed Minister for Employment and Minister for Skills and Training in the Second Rudd Ministry. Since the 2019 federal election, O'Connor has served as the Shadow Minister for Employment and Industry, Shadow Minister for Science and Shadow Minister for Small and Family Business
