68 Facts About Ray O'Connor

Raymond James O'Connor was an Australian politician who served as the premier of Western Australia from 25 January 1982 to 25 February 1983.

Ray O'Connor was a member of the Parliament of Western Australia from 1959 to 1984, and a minister in the governments of David Brand and Charles Court.

Ray O'Connor competed in athletics and played Australian rules football as a teenager and young adult, including playing 14 matches for East Perth in the Western Australian National Football League.

Ray O'Connor joined the Liberal Party in 1957 and was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1959.

Ray O'Connor became a minister again when Court was elected premier in 1974.

Ray O'Connor was police minister when the murder of Shirley Finn occurred in 1975, which remains unsolved but was likely done by a corrupt police officer.

When Court resigned as premier in January 1982, Ray O'Connor was elected by his party to succeed him.

The 1983 state election occurred 13 months later, in which the Ray O'Connor government was defeated by Brian Burke and the Labor Party.

Ray O'Connor became opposition leader but was removed in a leadership spill in February 1984.

Ray O'Connor was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1989.

Raymond James O'Connor was born on 6 March 1926 in Perth, Western Australia, as one of eight children of Annie nee Moran and Alphonsus Maurice O'Connor, a police officer.

Ray O'Connor was of Irish and English descent and was brought up as a Catholic.

Ray O'Connor's father had an interest in politics, founding a branch of the Labor Party in Quairading.

Ray O'Connor attended school in the Wheatbelt towns of Narrogin and York as well as St Patrick's Boys' School in Perth, leaving school at the age of 14.

Ray O'Connor played sports as a teenager and young adult, winning state titles in athletics for hurdles and discus in 1943.

Ray O'Connor played as a ruckman for the East Perth Football Club from 1946 to 1950, including playing 14 games in the Western Australian National Football League and winning the Prendergast Medal for best and fairest in the WANFL reserves in 1950.

From 1942 to 1944, Ray O'Connor worked for farming machinery company Southern Cross Windmills.

Ray O'Connor enlisted with the Second Australian Imperial Force in April 1944.

In September 1945, Ray O'Connor was transferred to the 26th Battalion and moved from Bougainville to Rabaul, New Britain.

Ray O'Connor embarked at Rabaul on 29 May 1946 and arrived back in Australia eight days later.

Ray O'Connor campaigned against the abolition of the Legislative Council, saying that it needed to be rejuvenated and have more young people elected to it.

Ray 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.

The electoral district of North Perth was abolished at the 1962 state election due to a redistribution, so Ray O'Connor transferred to the adjacent electoral district of Mount Lawley.

Ray O'Connor often suggested changes to the Police Act to the party room, believing it was out of date.

Ray O'Connor 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.

Ray O'Connor had a reputation for being a successful gambler, having allegedly won A$100,000 betting on horse races once, although he denied this.

Ray O'Connor became involved in controversy when, during a debate on legislation to form the Totalisator Agency Board, he said that he had been offered a bribe to oppose the TAB.

The Liberals lost the 1971 state election, and Ray O'Connor moved with the rest of the party to the opposition benches.

Ray O'Connor indicated he would accept the nomination, but declined during the party room meeting, so Court was elected unopposed.

Ray O'Connor later said that he withdrew because his marriage had recently ended and he had claimed to be blackmailed.

Ray O'Connor contested the deputy leadership ballot but lost to Des O'Neil.

Ray O'Connor was the minister for police, the minister for traffic, and, from 1 May 1974, the minister for traffic safety.

Ray O'Connor formed the Road Traffic Authority, making a single body responsible for traffic and enforcement of infringements.

Ray O'Connor was the police minister when the murder of well known socialite and brothel keeper Shirley Finn occurred on 22 June 1975.

Ray O'Connor became the minister for works, minister for water supplies, and the minister for housing, all lower profile ministries than police.

Ray O'Connor handled so many different ministries that he became known as the "minister for just about everything".

Ray O'Connor objected to immigrants coming to Australia without any check for criminal records or their health, and said that "we should give them money, petrol, turn their boat round and send them home".

Ray O'Connor retained the labour and industry, consumer affairs, and immigration portfolios, and gained regional administration and the north-west, and tourism.

Court was concerned that Ray O'Connor had promised too many MPs cabinet positions and that Ray 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.

Nevertheless, Ray O'Connor won the leadership ballot unopposed, and Cyril Rushton was elected deputy leader.

Ray O'Connor chose to make himself treasurer, saying that it was a portfolio best handled by the premier.

The ministers who left were Court, Grayden, who was opposed to O'Connor becoming premier, and David Wordsworth.

Ray 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".

Ray O'Connor blamed the poor results for the Liberals on the unpopular federal Fraser government.

In January 1983, Ray O'Connor announced the date of the 1983 state election would be 19 February.

The Australian reported that Ray O'Connor was "stunned and infuriated" at the announcement and that Fraser had not consulted with Ray O'Connor.

Ray O'Connor continued on as Liberal leader and leader of the opposition following his government's defeat.

Ray O'Connor was succeeded as the member for Mount Lawley by George Cash.

Ray O'Connor owned one third of the company and Connell owned two thirds.

Ray O'Connor received a yearly $25,000 retainer each from Connell, Bond Corporation, Multiplex and another company, and O'Connor was additionally paid $500 per week.

Ray O'Connor did work for the Burke government and for Connell, including lobbying local governments to approve developments.

The commission was played a recording of the conversation secretly taped by Terry Burke where Ray O'Connor said he was given a $30,000 bribe by former Bond Corporation managing director Peter Beckwith on behalf of subsidiary Austmark International.

Ray O'Connor said he then passed the bribe to Stirling councillor George Cash.

Ray O'Connor gave evidence on 28 February 1992, where he admitted to having the conversation with Burke but said that he was lying so that he could find out information from the Burke government that would be useful to the Liberal Party.

Ray O'Connor admitted to lobbying Stirling councillors on behalf of Austmark but said that no bribes took place.

In February 1992, Ray O'Connor resigned from the Liberal Party amid speculation that the party would kick him out.

Unrelated to the cheque, the investigation found that Ray O'Connor had not paid tax on the $500 per week he received from Connell for his consultancy business.

Mr Ray O'Connor misappropriated for his own purposes the monies which were the proceeds of the Bond Corporation cheque.

Ray O'Connor was charged on 11 May 1993 with one count of stealing and two counts of criminal defamation relating to his statements saying that George Cash accepted a bribe.

Ray O'Connor pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on bail.

In November 1993, he had a preliminary hearing which determined there was enough evidence for Ray O'Connor to go on trial.

Evidence was given that Ray O'Connor had a $98,000 overdraft and a $27,000 tax bill, which prosecutors alleged was Ray O'Connor's motive for stealing the cheque.

Ray O'Connor served his sentence at the minimum-security Wooroloo Prison Farm.

Ray O'Connor was released on parole on 20 August 1995 after serving six months of his sentence.

Ray 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 East Perth on 17 June 1950.

Ray O'Connor was the uncle of West Coast Eagles coach Ron Alexander and the grandfather of Adelaide Crows player Ronin Ray O'Connor.

Ray O'Connor died on 25 February 2013 in a nursing home in Scarborough, aged 86.

Ray O'Connor's funeral occurred on 7 March 2013 at the Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Woodlands and he was cremated at Karrakatta Cemetery.