1. Peter Charles Paire O'Neill was born on 13 February 1965 and is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019.
68 Facts About Peter O'Neill
1. 2.
Peter O'Neill has been a Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pangia since 2002.
3.
Peter O'Neill was a former cabinet minister and the leader of the People's National Congress between 2006 and 2022.
4.
Peter O'Neill's father, Brian O'Neill, was a magistrate of Irish Australian descent, while his mother, Awambo Yari, was of Papua New Guinean descent from the Southern Highlands.
5.
Peter O'Neill's father moved to Papua New Guinea in 1949 as an Australian government field officer and later served as a magistrate in Goroka until his death in 1982.
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Peter O'Neill spent the first years of his youth in his mother's village, and after attending secondary school, he stayed at his father's urban residence in Goroka.
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Peter O'Neill was educated at Pangia Primary School, Ialibu High School, and Goroka High School.
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Peter O'Neill later received a degree with honors in accounting from UPNG.
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Peter O'Neill obtained a professional qualification and became a Certified Practicing Accountant in 1989.
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Peter O'Neill was then a partner in Pratley and Peter O'Neill's accounting firm.
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Peter O'Neill combined this with a substantial number of directorships, often as executive chairman, including at the PNG Banking Corporation when it was government-owned.
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Peter O'Neill entered politics in 2002 as a Member of Parliament representing Ialibu-Pangia under Prime Minister Michael Somare.
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Later that year, O'Neill became leader of the opposition, but Speaker Jeffery Nape initially did not recognise him and claimed Peter Yama held the position instead.
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Peter O'Neill then led the opposition in ousting Abal as acting prime minister.
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Peter O'Neill was then elected by the Parliament as prime minister with 70 of the 94 votes cast.
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The Supreme Court ruled that Somare was the legitimate prime minister, but Peter O'Neill retained overwhelming support in parliament.
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The PNC, which was headed by Peter O'Neill, was the largest political party based the outcome of the 2017 elections.
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Peter O'Neill's party had the most seats, and this entitled O'Neill constitutionally to form the government.
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Peter O'Neill needed to form a coalition from a weak base in a fragmented parliament.
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Peter O'Neill succeeded again in doing that: he gained the support of 60 MPs, with 46 MPs in opposition.
21.
Peter O'Neill resorted, as before, to parliamentary rules to procrastinate the vote of no confidence and suggested adjourning parliament for three weeks.
22.
Peter O'Neill obtained a nine-vote majority supporting his proposed adjournment to stave off the vote of no confidence.
23.
Peter O'Neill thereafter turned to the courts in an attempt to procrastinate with the argument that the no confidence motion could not be held as long as it was a case before the Supreme Court raising pertinent constitutional questions.
24.
Peter O'Neill then turned again to the courts, asking for a speedy decision on his request to stay the vote of no confidence because of the urgency of a possible vote of no confidence.
25.
Peter O'Neill then avoids a vote of no confidence by following the suggestion that he had rejected earlier: he resigns and appoints Julius Chan as his successor.
26.
Peter O'Neill embarked on an activist development policy that he contrasted with the stagnation of previous years.
27.
Peter O'Neill took a substantial loan from the Chinese Import-Export Bank, to remedy the "sins" of the past.
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Peter O'Neill laid stress on the development of infrastructure, especially roads.
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Peter O'Neill maintained these policies after being re-elected in 2017.
30.
Peter O'Neill stuck to two elements that had been central to PNG's policy towards West Papua since independence.
31.
The ULM has signalled its continuing interest in full membership, which Peter O'Neill has indicated he would only support if there was full endorsement by the Indonesian government.
32.
Peter O'Neill suggested that ULM bring its cause to the United Nations decolonization committee.
33.
Peter O'Neill was referred to as a controversial Prime Minister when he was returned in 2017.
34.
The commission of inquiry in the National Provident Fund of 2003 recommended prosecuting Peter O'Neill for extorting money in return for revaluing a contract to build a high-rise.
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Peter O'Neill appeared in a committal court in 2005, but the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
36.
Peter O'Neill's name was involved in an enquiry into the irregular disbursement of massive legal fees to the law firm of Paul Paraka.
37.
Peter O'Neill refused to be questioned and dismissed the Task Force Sweep and the police officers involved.
38.
Peter O'Neill challenged an arrest warrant against him before the courts, and the Supreme Court voided the warrant in December 2017 as defective.
39.
Peter O'Neill nationalised the Ok Tedi Mine owned by the PNG Sustainable Development Fund without compensation.
40.
The Peter O'Neill government had stated after taking power in 2012 that it intended to obtain a bigger share of dividends from the mine, but nationalisation without compensation came as a surprise.
41.
Peter O'Neill immediately announced an appeal and a Commission of Enquiry.
42.
Greg Sheppard, a lawyer close to Peter O'Neill, has been charged with defrauding a trust fund established to aid communities impacted by the OkTedi mine.
43.
Peter O'Neill faced an alleged disregard for regulatory control and political procedure in arranging a loan from the Swiss banking firm UBS to obtain shares in Oil Search.
44.
Peter O'Neill's lawyers challenged the powers of the Ombudsman to investigate the Prime Minister as well as publish and distribute the resulting information.
45.
The report that Peter O'Neill wanted to suppress came out in May 2019.
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Peter O'Neill was Minister of Finance when the deal was concluded.
47.
When Peter O'Neill resigned, he was therefore under siege from several sides; it was not only his parliamentary majority that was at stake.
48.
Peter O'Neill presided over a period of economic growth attributable in the main to the commencement of the ExxonMobil-Total PNG LNG project, construction of which began in 2010 and production of LNG in 2014.
49.
Peter O'Neill systematically defended his whole performance in an interview after he lost office.
50.
Peter O'Neill sees his policies for free education and health care as a success.
51.
Peter O'Neill considers the negative view of the PNG economy to be IMF-inspired, and the budget is made up by foreign academics who had not even lived in the country.
52.
Peter O'Neill was the leader in parliament of the largest political party, the PNC.
53.
Peter O'Neill objected not only to this appointment but condemned in general the appointment of MPS, who had opposed the Peter O'Neill-Abel cabinet.
54.
Peter O'Neill declared himself elected by people from all parties in parliament and was therefore not answerable to the PNC.
55.
Peter O'Neill had therefore no longer a hold on his party.
56.
Peter O'Neill continued to come under fire after his move to the cross-bench and subsequently in opposition.
57.
Kramer had, as a former member of the Opposition while Peter O'Neill was Prime Minister, accused Peter O'Neill of holding dual citizenship, which would disqualify him from Parliament.
58.
Peter O'Neill maintained that this was false and challenged Kramer to provide evidence.
59.
Peter O'Neill was released on bail and travelled to Australia in November 2019 for an extended period of time.
60.
Peter O'Neill was arrested shortly after returning on 23 May 2020, again on charges of official corruption, stemming from the purchase of two generators from a company in Israel with which he was accused of having close ties.
61.
Peter O'Neill said the allegations were politically motivated and that he had not personally benefited from the procurement of the generators.
62.
Peter O'Neill considered the case an attempt to block him in the next general election and stated defiantly, "You have to defeat me at the elections".
63.
Peter O'Neill was among several ex prime ministers and deputy prime ministers in the group asking for a vote of no confidence.
64.
The court cases of Namah as well as of Peter O'Neill had been cleared, and therefore the way was open.
65.
The combination of Namah and Peter O'Neill is remarkable, as they had been on very bad terms when Peter O'Neill ignored his former deputy Prime Minister after the 2012 election.
66.
Peter O'Neill won re-election to the National Parliament in 2022 in the first round with a large majority, which is unusual in the country.
67.
Peter O'Neill has been married to Lynda May Babao since 1999.
68.
Peter O'Neill was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George as a Companion in the 2007 Birthday Honours List.