Ray O'Connor
Ray O'Connor | |
---|---|
22nd Premier of Western Australia | |
In office 25 January 1982 – 25 February 1983 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Governor | Sir Richard Trowbridge |
Deputy | Cyril Rushton |
Preceded by | Sir Charles Court |
Succeeded by | Brian Burke |
Leader of the Opposition | |
In office 25 February 1983 – 15 February 1984 | |
Premier | Brian Burke |
Deputy | Bill Hassell |
Preceded by | Brian Burke |
Succeeded by | Bill Hassell |
Leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party | |
In office 25 January 1982 – 15 February 1984 | |
Deputy | Cyril Rushton Bill Hassell |
Preceded by | Sir Charles Court |
Succeeded by | Bill Hassell |
Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for Mount Lawley | |
In office 31 March 1962 – 24 August 1984 | |
Preceded by | Edward Oldfield |
Succeeded by | George Cash |
Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for North Perth | |
In office 21 March 1959 – 31 March 1962 | |
Preceded by | Stan Lapham |
Succeeded by | Seat abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | Raymond James O'Connor 6 March 1926 Perth, Western Australia |
Died | 25 February 2013 Scarborough, Western Australia | (aged 86)
Political party | Liberal (1957–1995, 2001–) |
Spouses | Beverley Vilma Lydiate
(m. 1950, divorced)Vesna Frances Stampalia (
née Dragicevich) (m. 1973) |
Children | 8 |
Nickname | Rocky[1][2] |
Raymond James O'Connor (6 March 1926 – 25 February 2013) was an Australian politician who served as the
O'Connor joined the
O'Connor became deputy premier in 1980. When Court resigned as premier in January 1982, O'Connor was elected by his party to succeed him. The 1983 state election occurred 13 months later, in which the O'Connor government was defeated by Brian Burke and the Labor Party. The election was mainly fought on economic issues, particularly unemployment. O'Connor became opposition leader but was removed in a leadership spill in February 1984.
After resigning from Parliament in 1984, O'Connor started a consultancy business. He was made an
Early life
Raymond James O'Connor was born on 6 March 1926 in
O'Connor played sports as a teenager and young adult, winning state titles in athletics for
From 1942 to 1944, O'Connor worked for farming machinery company Southern Cross Windmills.[3][8] In World War II, he was involved with the Bougainville campaign. O'Connor enlisted with the Second Australian Imperial Force in April 1944. After doing jungle training in Canungra, Queensland,[10] he embarked at Brisbane on 5 June 1945 and disembarked at Torokina on the island of Bougainville five days later, where he was transferred to the 61st Battalion.[12] Bougainville was where he first met Charles Court, a senior officer and future premier of Western Australia.[10] In September 1945, O'Connor was transferred to the 26th Battalion and moved from Bougainville to Rabaul, New Britain. In October 1945, he was transferred to the 13th Field Company, where he was promoted to corporal in February 1946. He embarked at Rabaul on 29 May 1946 and arrived back in Australia eight days later.[12] His boxing experience in the army and his initials "ROC" led him to later gain the nickname "Rocky".[1] After being discharged in January 1947, he studied accounting but did not finish. In 1955, he bought the Beehive Tearooms, a café in Forrest Place, Perth.[3][10]
Early political career
After encouragement from his father, O'Connor contested the Metropolitan Province of the Western Australian Legislative Council at the 1956 state election as an "independent Liberal" candidate, receiving 884 votes out of 15,159.[3][13] He campaigned against the abolition of the Legislative Council, saying that it needed to be rejuvenated and have more young people elected to it.[14] From 1957 to 1960, he was a used car sales proprietor in Inglewood, from 1957, he was a director of the Town and Country Terminating Building Society, and from 1964 to 1966, he was a director of the Town and Country Permanent Building Society.[3][13] This garnered him interest from the Liberal Party, so Liberal MLC Keith Watson asked him to join the party in 1957 and contest the seat of North Perth in the Legislative Assembly, which was held by Labor's Stan Lapham. O'Connor won the seat off a 8.2 percent swing at the 1959 state election on 21 March, the same election in which David Brand became premier.[15]
The electoral district of North Perth was abolished at the
As the minister for transport, O'Connor introduced compulsory seatbelts for passenger vehicles.[21] He said that although he personally opposed compulsory seatbelts as an "infringement on individuals' rights", cabinet approved it so he had to introduce the legislation for it. In an interview in 1996, he said that compulsory seatbelts "turned out to be the right thing, no doubt about that".[22] As the minister for railways, he oversaw the gauge standardisation project of the railway between Perth and Kalgoorlie,[a] which enabled people to travel to and from the eastern states by rail without changing trains. In February 1970, he travelled on the inaugural Indian Pacific train from Sydney to Perth, a journey only made possible by the gauge standardisation.[23]
O'Connor had a reputation for being a successful gambler, having allegedly won
The Liberals lost the
As police minister, O'Connor set the
O'Connor was the police minister when the murder of well known socialite and brothel keeper
Mr O'Connor was clearly a colourful character. There is evidence indicating that he may have been involved with Ms Finn, and weak circumstantial evidence suggesting that he may have procured Ms Finn's death. However, none of that evidence comes close to establishing his involvement to the applicable standard of proof.[36][38]
The ministry was reconstituted on 10 March 1977 following the
Throughout Court's premiership, O'Connor was generally considered second in line, behind Deputy Premier Des O'Neil, to replace Court if he were to stand down as Liberal leader. After O'Neil unexpectedly retired at the
Premier
Court announced on 18 December 1981 that he planned to resign on 25 January 1982.[51] According to fellow MP Jim Clarko, speaking in an interview in 2012, O'Connor was the only option, with Bill Hassell, who only joined the ministry in 1980, the next best option. According to Tony Warton, Court's media advisor, his preferred successor was Peter Jones, a National Country Party minister. Court was concerned that O'Connor had promised too many MPs cabinet positions and that O'Connor was not able to handle portfolios with large budgets, although Court believed he did "reasonably well with railways" and thought that his personality would help him deal with people.[50] Nevertheless, O'Connor won the leadership ballot unopposed, and Cyril Rushton was elected deputy leader.[52][51][53]
O'Connor and his ministry were sworn in by Governor Richard Trowbridge on 25 January 1982.[54][55] O'Connor chose to make himself treasurer,[56] saying that it was a portfolio best handled by the premier.[51] Out of the thirteen ministers in the previous Court ministry, ten were in the O'Connor ministry. The ministers who left were Court, Grayden, who was opposed to O'Connor becoming premier, and David Wordsworth.[54][57][55] The new ministers were Ian Laurance, Barry MacKinnon and Bob Pike. Clarko and Richard Shalders were appointed assistant ministers[55][58] before later being made ministers on 14 May 1982.[59]
Soon after becoming premier, O'Connor sacked more than 200 workers at the Hospital Laundry Linen Service for striking and threatened to deregister their union. The workers were demanding a pay rise of $25 per week whereas the government was offering them an $11 per week pay rise. They were then told they could keep their jobs if they returned to work on 5 February.[55][60] That day, they voted overwhelmingly against returning to work and they fought with police and picketed outside their workplace. By 3 pm that day, they accepted the $11 per week pay rise and returned to work.[55][61] Later in February, the government approved a pay rise for nurses, who had been part of a prominent campaign against depressed wages a year previously. O'Connor was described in the Australian Journal of Politics and History as "anxious to assert that his administration would be compassionate and people-oriented".[55]
Three by-elections occurred on 13 March 1982: the Nedlands by-election to replace Court, the Swan by-election to replace retiring Labor MLA Jack Skidmore, and the South Metropolitan by-election to replace retiring Labor MLC Howard Olney. The Nedlands by-election had around a 10 percent swing towards the Labor Party, but nevertheless, Court's son Richard Court was elected. In the Swan by-election, Gordon Hill retained the seat for Labor with a 3.6 percent swing to Labor, and in the South Metropolitan by-election, Garry Kelly retained the seat for Labor with a 4.3 percent swing to Labor. O'Connor blamed the poor results for the Liberals on the unpopular federal Fraser government.[55][62] On 31 July, another by-election occurred for the North Province following the resignation of Liberal turned independent MLC Bill Withers. Tom Stephens of the Labor Party won with a 14 percent swing towards Labor.[63][64]
By August, unemployment in Western Australia was rising faster than the other states.
In January 1983, O'Connor announced the date of the
Later life
O'Connor continued on as Liberal leader and
By early 1984, O'Connor was encountering pressure to resign as his media and parliamentary skills were no match for Burke's,[70][71] and he had taken a six week family holiday to Europe at the end of 1983.[70][72] On 10 February, Thompson, a formerly staunch supporter of O'Connor, resigned from the shadow ministry and called for him to resign as leader. A meeting of the 39 Liberal MPs was called for 15 February,[70][71] at which Thompson proposed a motion that the leader and deputy leader positions be declared vacant. The motion was passed, and so a leadership spill occurred among the MPs. O'Connor, along with Hassell, MacKinnon, and Rushton contested the spill. Hassell was elected leader and MacKinnon was elected deputy leader. Afterwards, O'Connor stated that he would resign from politics by the end of the year.[70][73] The ballot was the first leadership spill in the state Liberal Party's history.[74]
O'Connor resigned from Parliament on 24 August 1984.
In the
WA Inc
Burke resigned as premier in February 1988 and was replaced by Peter Dowding,[82] who himself resigned in February 1990 amid unpopularity due to the WA Inc scandal,[83] a series of controversial government investments and deals with private enterprise dating back to the Burke government.[84] The Labor Party replaced him with Carmen Lawrence, who initially resisted calls for a royal commission into WA Inc. After months of pressure, she announced in November 1990 that the royal commission would go ahead.[85][86] To take the heat off Labor, Lawrence included investigating the Court and O'Connor governments in the commission's terms of reference as well as the Burke and Dowding governments.[87][88]
While giving evidence to the commission,
Cash, by now a senior opposition MP, commenced defamation action against O'Connor soon after his appearance at the commission.[94] In February 1992, O'Connor resigned from the Liberal Party amid speculation that the party would kick him out.[95][96] In the same month, the commission began investigating O'Connor's finances, suspecting him of having stolen a $25,000 cheque from Bond Corporation in April 1984. The cheque was made out to a "Mt Lawley campaign fund" and recorded by Bond Corporation as a political donation.[97] The investigation found a $25,000 deposit into O'Connor's bank account at the same time, which O'Connor was unable to explain.[98] By that point, the record of the transaction had been destroyed which prevented investigators from determining where the money came from just based on the bank's records.[99] Unrelated to the cheque, the investigation found that O'Connor had not paid tax on the $500 per week he received from Connell for his consultancy business.[97]
The commission handed down its first report on 20 October 1992, which made adverse findings against O'Connor. The commission found that the Bond Corporation cheque was given to O'Connor with the intention of using the money to bribe the Stirling council, but O'Connor kept the money for himself and that no bribery took place.[100][101] The report stated that "O'Connor was given every opportunity to explain the source of the sum deposited to the credit of his account on 19 April 1984, but was unable to do so in any believable way. Mr O'Connor misappropriated for his own purposes the monies which were the proceeds of the Bond Corporation cheque."[84]
O'Connor was charged on 11 May 1993 with one count of stealing[b] and two counts of criminal defamation relating to his statements saying that George Cash accepted a bribe.[103] He pleaded not guilty to all charges[104] and was released on bail.[105] In November 1993, he had a preliminary hearing[102][106] which determined there was enough evidence for O'Connor to go on trial.[107] The trial for the stealing charge began on 13 February 1995 in the District Court.[99][108] Evidence was given that O'Connor had a $98,000 overdraft and a $27,000 tax bill, which prosecutors alleged was O'Connor's motive for stealing the cheque.[99] The jury gave a unanimous verdict that O'Connor was guilty on 17 February.[108][109] This made him the first conservative MP to be convicted of offences relating to WA Inc, after Brian Burke and David Parker from the Labor Party had been convicted earlier.[99][110] On 21 February, O'Connor was sentenced to 18 months in prison.[111] He served his sentence at the minimum-security Wooroloo Prison Farm.[112] In June 1995, his trial for the defamation charges occurred,[113] in which he was found guilty of both counts. He was given an 18-month good behaviour bond.[108][114] He was released on parole on 20 August 1995 after serving six months of his sentence.[99][112] As a result of his conviction, his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia was terminated on 18 October 1995.[81][115]
After 2001, O'Connor was reinstated as a member of the Liberal Party when party leader Colin Barnett put forward a motion that his membership be restored. Barnett said "as leader I moved at a state council meeting that Ray's membership be restored on the grounds that he had made a great contribution to the party, he had made an error and done his time, that we should put that behind us, move on, and readmit him."[116]
Personal life
O'Connor married his first wife Beverley Vilma Lydiate, with whom he had four daughters and four sons, at St Francis Xavier's Church in
Death
O'Connor died on 25 February 2013 in a nursing home in Scarborough, aged 86.[3][2][121] His funeral occurred on 7 March 2013[122] at the Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Woodlands and he was cremated at Karrakatta Cemetery.[119][123]
See also
- Electoral results for the district of North Perth
- Electoral results for the district of Mount Lawley
- List of heads of government who were later imprisoned
- List of Australian politicians convicted of crimes
Notes
- ^ This consisted of the Eastern Railway from Perth to Northam and the Eastern Goldfields Railway from Northam to Kalgoorlie
- ^ O'Connor was initially charged with stealing the $25,000 cheque from the Liberal Party. Prosecutors amended the charge at a November 1993 preliminary hearing to stealing from Bond Corporation, as there was insufficient evidence the cheque had ever reached the Liberal Party.[102]
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Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-7309-3983-2.
- ISBN 978-1-925580-43-3. Archived(PDF) from the original on 13 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
- Jamieson, Ronda (2010). Charles Court: I love this place. St George Books. ISBN 978-0-86778-293-6.
- ISBN 978-1-74258-533-8– via Archive.org.
- O'Connor, Ray (August 1996). "Interview with Raymond James O'Connor, politician" (PDF). State Library of Western Australia (Interview). Interviewed by Stuart Reid. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 March 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-85564-214-3.
Further reading
- "Valedictory Speech" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. 23 August 1984.
- "Condolence Motion" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. 16 April 2013.
- "Bribery Allegations – Observation City". Report of the Royal Commission into Commercial Activities of Government and Other Matters: Part 1 (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia (Report). Vol. 6. 1992. pp. 105–153.