O'Dwyer ended her political career as Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations in the Morrison government,[2] retiring prior to the 2019 federal election.

[7] On 17 September 2009, O'Dwyer was pre-selected to stand as the Liberal Party candidate for Higgins at the next election.

[12] During the preselection process federal Liberal politicians Sophie Mirabella, Fran Bailey and Helen Coonan claimed that there had been a sexist campaign against O'Dwyer's candidacy, with some preselectors being told that a "leadership seat" such as Higgins was unsuited to a woman and that being elected to a federal seat might endanger her marriage.

[15][16] A Greens-funded Lonergan seat-level opinion poll conducted from a sample of 1,100 voters in Higgins took place a month out from the 2016 election on 3−4 June.

[17] O'Dwyer had been serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer in the Abbott government from December 2014, until the leadership spill of the Liberal Party occurred in September 2015.

[18][19] Following the re-election of the Turnbull government in 2016, the O'Dwyer was appointed as the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, a name change.

[22] On 19 January 2019, O'Dwyer announced that she would not be contesting the upcoming election as her two children would be approaching primary school age and she wanted to give her and her husband the best opportunity for a third child.