He was a farmer, high school teacher, and member of the Colac City Council before entering Parliament.

[1] He contested the 1984 Corangamite by-election but was unsuccessful as it was a safe Liberal seat.

[1] O'Connor lost his endorsement as the ALP candidate for Corio to Richard Marles in March 2007.

On 18 October the same year, he announced he would run as an independent at the 2007 election,[2] and achieved 12.7 percent of the vote, but lost to Marles.

This article about an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives is a stub.