Simon David O'Connor (born 25 February 1976) is a New Zealand politician and a former member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for the National Party. He represented the Tāmaki electorate from 2011 to 2023.
Early life
O'Connor was raised in Whangārei, the eldest of three children, where he attended St Mary's Primary School and Pompallier College. He was a keen fencer and was president of the Auckland University Fencing Club.
O'Connor completed training to be a Catholic priest, which involved working on the island of Taveuni in Fiji for two years at a vocational training centre, prison chaplaincy at Mount Eden Prison, military chaplaincy at Waiouru Army Base, and spending time with people in hospitals and hospices. He did not seek ordination, deciding instead to study and pursue a career in politics.
O'Connor graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Political Studies (his Political Studies Honours dissertation looked at the works of René Girard), a Bachelor of Theology, and a Master of Arts with First Class Honours (Political Studies). He has also worked as a contracts manager for Southern Cross Insurance.
O'Connor was the chairperson of Monarchy New Zealand between 2010 and 2012 and remains a board member.
Political career
O'Connor has been involved in the National Party since 2005. He was deputy chair of the party's Northern Region before seeking the National nomination for the Maungakiekie electorate in 2008. He lost the selection contest to Sam Lotu-Iiga, who went on to win the seat, but O'Connor was appointed as a list candidate for the 2008 general election, ranked 72nd.
He was selected as the party's candidate in the electorate following the withdrawal of sitting MP Allan Peachey shortly before the 2011 election and was elected to Parliament. In his first term, he was a member of the Education and Science committee and the Transport and Industrial Relations committee, and the deputy chair of the Finance and Expenditure committee. O'Connor held his electorate at the 2014 general election. In his second term, he chaired the Health committee. During his tenure as chair, the committee ran an inquiry into euthanasia which did not propose any changes to the law.
O'Connor was re-elected at both the 2017 general election and the 2020 general election. National was in opposition after these two elections. O'Connor held various National Party spokesperson roles during this period, including corrections (2017 to 2023), customs (2018 to 2023), arts, culture and heritage (2020 to 2023) and internal affairs (two separate periods in 2021 and 2023). He briefly resigned his portfolios in late 2021 when his brother-in-law, Simon Bridges, was demoted by National leader Judith Collins. He chaired the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee from 2017 to 2020 and was a member of the Justice committee from 2021 to 2023.
Since 2020, O'Connor was a co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international group of legislators working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China, and specifically, the Chinese Communist Party. In December 2020, he and fellow IPAC member Louisa Wall urged New Zealand to speak out against China's alleged "coercive diplomacy" and support Australia in the face of diplomatic and economic pressure from China. In August 2022, O'Connor, fellow IPAC member Labour MP Ingrid Leary, and other members from Australia, India and Japan launched a new local Indo-Pacific chapter to focus on increased Chinese militarisation in that region.
Defeat at the 2023 general election
On 30 September 2022, it was reported that three unknown people had launched campaigns to replace O'Connor as the National party's Tāmaki candidate at the 2023 New Zealand general election. On 21 October, O'Connor's challengers were identified as lawyer Andrew Grant and restaurant proprietor Sang Cho. Grant had publicly opposed "tough on crime" rhetoric. Ultimately, the challenge was unsuccessful and O'Connor was confirmed as the National Party candidate for Tāmaki at a party meeting in November 2022.