O'Connor was born in Westport in 1958. He attended primary school in his home town before going on to St Bede's College, Christchurch, a Roman Catholic school, and Lincoln University. Before becoming an MP, he worked in a variety of jobs in farming and tourism. During a five-year stint in Australia, he worked as a machinery operator and in sales. On his return to New Zealand he established Buller Adventure Tours, an adventure tourism company, which he owned and operated in a partnership.
Member of Parliament
He was first elected to Parliament in the 1993 election, recapturing the West Coast seat after the upset victory of National's Margaret Moir in the 1990 election. He said in 2018 that his 1993 support for Mike Moore rather than Helen Clark set his career back. He won the reconfigured West Coast-Tasman seat in the 1996 election, and was the MP for the electorate until 2008. O'Connor is regarded as being on the right of the Labour Party and has, with permission, voted against his colleagues on at least one occasion. He was the Minister of Rural Affairs, the Minister of Tourism, Minister of Immigration and Associate Minister of Health. At the 2008 general election O'Connor was beaten by National candidate Chris Auchinvole, who had previously been a list MP. Auchinvole's majority was 971. His position on the Labour Party list meant that O'Connor couldn't return to Parliament immediately. When the list MP Michael Cullen retired in May 2009, O'Connor regained his position as Member of the House of Representatives because he was the highest-ranked candidate on the list not already an MP. In the 49th Parliament of New Zealand, O'Connor was Labour's spokesperson for Rural Affairs, Spokesperson for Biosecurity and Associate Spokesperson for Agriculture. For the election of the 50th New Zealand Parliament O'Connor announced he would only contest the electorate and not seek another selection for the list. In April 2011 O'Connor attracted criticism from Labour Party leaderPhil Goff after describing the list MP selection process as being run by "self-serving unionists and a gaggle of gays." At the 2011 general election O'Connor regained the West Coast-Tasman electorate from National's Chris Auchinvole with a majority of 2287 votes. In 2012, O'Connor voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill, which aims to permit same sex marriage in New Zealand. With fellow labour MPs William Sio, Rino Tirikatene, Ross Robertson. In the, O'Connor defended a challenge by former Mayor of Westland District, Maureen Pugh. Following the, O'Connor was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety, and Rural Communities, and Associate Minister for Trade and Export Growth., which has meant managing the 2017 Mycoplasma bovis outbreak
Business activities
O'Connor is past president of the Buller Promotion Association, a member of the West Coast Tourism Development Group, a member of the West Coast Business Development Board and a founding director of Buller Community Development Company. He also won West Coast Young Farmer of the Year.
