Member of Parliament
| Parliament of New Zealand | ||||
| Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party |
| 1993–1996 | 44th | West Coast | Labour | |
| 1996–1999 | 45th | West Coast-Tasman | 32 | Labour |
| 1999–2002 | 46th | West Coast-Tasman | none | Labour |
| 2002–2005 | 47th | West Coast-Tasman | none | Labour |
| 2005–2008 | 48th | West Coast-Tasman | none | Labour |
| 2009–2011 | 49th | List | 37 | Labour |
| 2011–present | 50th | West Coast-Tasman | none | Labour |
He was first elected to Parliament in the 1993 elections, recapturing the West Coast seat after the upset victory of National's Margaret Moir in the 1990 elections.
He retained his seat in the 1993 elections. He won the reconfigured West Coast-Tasman seat in the 1996 elections, and was the MP for the electorate until 2008.
O'Connor is regarded as being on the right of the Labour Party and has, with permission, voted against his colleagues on at least one occasion.
He was the Minister of Rural Affairs, the Minister of Tourism, as well as Immigration and Associate Minister of Health.
At the 2008 general election O'Connor was beaten by National candidate Chris Auchinvole, who had previously been a list MP. Auchinvole's majority was 971. His position on the Labour Party list meant that O'Connor couldn't return to Parliament immediately. When the list MP Michael Cullen retired in May 2009, O'Connor regained his position as Member of the House of Representatives because he was the highest-ranked candidate on the list not already an MP.
O'Connor is currently Labour's spokesperson for Rural Affairs, Spokesperson for Biosecurity and Associate Spokesperson for Agriculture. for the election of the 50th New Zealand Parliament O'Connor announced he would only contest the electorate and not seek another selection for the list.
In April 2011 O'Connor attracted criticism from Labour Party leader Phil Goff after describing the list MP selection process as being run by "self-serving unionists and a gaggle of gays."
At the 2011 general election O'Connor regained the West Coast-Tasman electorate from National's Chris Auchinvole with a majority of 2287 votes. He is currently the Labour spokesperson for Primary Industries, Biosecurity and Food Safety.
Read more about this topic: Damien O'Connor
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