1. Clare O'Neil is a member of the Australian Labor Party and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2013, representing the Victorian seat of Hotham.
24 Facts About Clare O'Neil
1. 2.
Clare O'Neil was elected to parliament at the 2013 federal election.
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Clare O'Neil continued in the shadow ministry after Anthony Albanese succeeded Shorten as ALP leader in 2019.
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Clare O'Neil was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1980, the daughter of prolific Australian publishers Lloyd Clare O'Neil and Anne O'Donovan.
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Clare O'Neil undertook her VCE at Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak, where she later served on the school council.
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Clare O'Neil then undertook further education at Monash University, studying a Bachelor of Arts, and then a Bachelor of Laws, graduating with honours in both fields.
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Clare O'Neil joined the Australian Labor Party at 16 and soon met Simon Crean, former party leader and her predecessor as the member for the division of Hotham.
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In March 2003, Clare O'Neil ran as a candidate for Springvale South Ward on the City of Greater Dandenong and was elected.
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In 2007, while studying in the United States, Clare O'Neil worked as an intern on the New York Stock Exchange; and in 2008 returned to Australia to serve briefly as an adviser to the Office of the Commonwealth Treasurer.
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Clare O'Neil was endorsed as a late replacement candidate for the Australian Labor Party in Hotham at the 2013 Australian federal election, following the disendorsement of her friend Geoff Lake.
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Clare O'Neil retained the seat for Labor and was quickly flagged by political commentator Peter van Onselen as a future front bencher.
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Clare O'Neil was additionally made Shadow Minister for Financial Services in June 2018.
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In 2022, Clare O'Neil was appointed as Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security, being the first Cabinet Minister responsible for Cyber Security.
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In 2024, Clare O'Neil was removed from her role as Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security, and was moved to the portfolio of Housing and Homelessness.
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Clare O'Neil has stated that Home Affairs must evolve to protect Australia's domestic security.
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Clare O'Neil has stated that Australia's migration system is broken and is not serving the needs of Australia, business or migrants.
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Clare O'Neil has announced a comprehensive review of the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks to look at how Home Affairs can learn from these cyber attacks and what policy reform needs to be done.
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Clare O'Neil has appointed a new expert advisory board to develop a new Cyber Security Strategy to improve Australia's national resilience to cyber threats and properly address the consequences of cyber incidents.
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Clare O'Neil was praised for leading the Albanese Government's response to the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks and her efforts to reform cyber security in Australia.
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Clare O'Neil was named 2022 Cybersecurity Person Of The Year by CyberCrime Magazine.
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In March 2024, Clare O'Neil was criticised for allegedly verbally abusing the secretary of her department, causing the secretary to leave her office in tears.
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Clare O'Neil has spoken on issues such as human rights violations in Cambodia, primary, secondary, and higher education, asylum seeker policy, and Australian Labor Party reform.
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In 2011, Clare O'Neil spent nine months living with her partner in North East Arnhem Land, one of the northernmost regions of the Northern Territory, fostering a child and assisting local women to establish small businesses.
24.
Clare O'Neil previously lived in East Melbourne, outside her electorate, but bought a house in Oakleigh in 2020.