He was a minister in the governments of Geoff Gallop and Alan Carpenter, and a member of the Labor Party until 29 August 2006, when he resigned following several controversies.

Born to Italian immigrants, D'Orazio grew up on a market garden in the Perth suburb of Bayswater.

In February 2006, it was revealed that in 2003, D'Orazio had organised a meeting between Adam Spagnolo, a City of Bayswater employee, and Tony Drago, the owner of a carpet business, where they allegedly reached a deal where Spagnolo would use his position at the City of Bayswater to give carpet contracts to the business.

The Crime and Corruption Commission cleared D'Orazio of wrongdoing the following month, and all charges against Spagnolo were dropped in 2007.

In August, it was revealed he had talked to corrupt panel beater Pasquale Minniti who said he could help D'Orazio get his licence back by using his connections at Western Australia Police.

As an independent MP, D'Orazio worked with Liberal backbencher Matt Birney to create a private member's bill for a referendum on whether to introduce daylight saving time.

He failed in his bid for preselection for the seat of Morley, so he resigned from the party on 26 June 2008 to stand as an independent.

His parents were Iterno Giuseppe D’Orazio and Larentina Carione,[1] who had immigrated from the Italian region of Abruzzo in 1949 and 1951 respectively.

[2][3] D'Orazio grew up at the family's market garden in Bayswater,[2][3] another suburb of Perth, and attended Christian Brothers College in Bedford and Highgate,[1] where he was a classmate of Stephen Smith.

[2][4][5]: 232  From 1973 to 1976, he studied at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now known as Curtin University) and obtained a bachelor of science degree, majoring in pharmacy.

[1] D'Orazio became interested in local government whilst trying to challenge planning precedents that applied to his pharmacy.

[1][6]: 293–7 [a] Under D'Orazio as mayor, the City of Bayswater restructured its administration;[6]: 294  the Morley Galleria Shopping Centre was constructed;[3][4] it became the first local government in the state to become debt free;[3][4] it introduced co-mingled recycling and a green waste bin, regarded as one of the best waste systems in Australia at the time;[3][4][7] it introduced security patrols;[3][4][7] and the first wave pool in the state, Bayswater Waves, was constructed.

[3]: 1 [11][12] In December 1995, D'Orazio was made an Honorary Freeman of the City in recognition of his service for 17 consecutive years as councillor.

At the 1996 Western Australian state election, he contested the newly created seat of Ballajura for the Labor Party, but he was defeated by 44 votes by the Liberal Party's Rhonda Parker, making Ballajura the closest seat for that election.

Following that election, on 10 March 2005, Gallop changed his mind on an earlier decision to disallow D'Orazio from joining cabinet until a Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) investigation into the Bayswater council had been completed.

[32][33] In April, former New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Dennis Mahoney was chosen to head the enquiry.

On 22 February 2006, The West Australian ran a story on its front page alleging that the meeting took place in D'Orazio's electorate office and that he was the person who brokered the deal.

[43][49][44] All charges against Spagnolo were dropped in October 2007 because "there was no reasonable prospect of a conviction because an innocent explanation could not be ruled out.

He was given on-the-spot fines, but reminder notices were sent to his previous address despite him having updated his licence details several years before.

[55][56] Days before this became known to the public, he increased penalties for speeding, using a mobile phone whilst driving, and not wearing a seatbelt.

[60] During 2006, the CCC began an investigation into Bayswater panel beater Pasquale Minniti, who was alleged to have used his connections with Western Australia Police to get speeding tickets withdrawn for those associated with him.

Later that day, Minniti called a friend at the police infringement management operations section, saying "we need to fix things up for John D'Orazio".

[61][62] On 25 August, the day after the CCC hearing played those phone calls, D'Orazio resigned from the Labor Party at the request of Alan Carpenter.

[71][72][73] Both major parties allowed a conscience vote, and the bill passed the Legislative Assembly on 31 October.

[69][74] In December 2007, the CCC found that D'Orazio acted inappropriately but did not engage in misconduct when meeting with Minniti.

[79] During his fight to re-enter the Labor Party, branch stacking allegations resurfaced, with Education and Training Minister Mark McGowan controversially calling D'Orazio "the worst ethnic branch stacker in the history of Labor in Western Australia".

[82][83][84] D'Orazio decided to direct the preferences on his how-to-vote cards towards the Liberal candidate, Ian Britza, instead of Whitby.

[1] In 2011, D'Orazio was diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare blood disease in which excessive proteins attack organs; a condition for which he had chemotherapy.