Gavan Michael O'Connor (born 2 December 1947) is an Australian politician who was an

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

(ALP) member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...

from March 1993 to November 2007, representing the

Division of Corio The Division of Corio () is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the states and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Career

Education

He was born in Colac, Victoria, and was educated at

St Patrick's College, Ballarat St Patrick's College, sometimes referred to as St Pat's, Paddy's or SPC, is an independent Catholic secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in central Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The school was founded by the Congregation of Chr ...

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

and the

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 26,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 6,000 students See also * New England Coll ...

. He was a farmer, high school teacher, and member of the

Colac City Council Colac can refer to: * Colac, Victoria, a town in Australia **City of Colac, a former local-government area in Victoria, Australia **Shire of Colac, a former local-government area in Victoria, Australia **Shire of Colac Otway, a current local-govern ...

before entering Parliament.

Politics

He contested the 1984 Corangamite by-election but was unsuccessful as it was a safe Liberal seat. He won the seat of Corio at the 1993 federal election. He became Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition (

Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born 14 December 1948) is an Australian former politician and diplomat. Since 2022 he has served as chairman of the Australian War Memorial. Previously, he was leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the ...

) from 1996 to 1998 and Member of the Opposition Shadow Ministry from October 1998. He was Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries from December 2003 until 2007 when he was dropped in a shadow cabinet reshuffle by incoming leader

Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd (born 21 September 1957) is an Australian diplomat and former politician who served as the 26th prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010 and June to September 2013. He held office as the Leaders of the Australian Labo ...

. O'Connor lost his endorsement as the ALP candidate for Corio to

Richard Marles Richard Donald Marles (born 13 July 1967) is an Australian politician and lawyer serving as the 19th and current deputy prime minister of Australia and the Minister for Defence (Australia), minister for Defence since May 2022. He has been the ...

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

References

1947 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Corio Monash University alumni University of New England (Australia) alumni 20th-century Australian farmers Australian schoolteachers People educated at St Patrick's College, Ballarat People from Colac, Victoria Farmers from Victoria (state) Australian MPs 1993–1996 Australian MPs 1996–1998 Australian MPs 1998–2001 Australian MPs 2001–2004 Australian MPs 2004–2007 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub