William O'Connor (Australian Politician)
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William Paul O'Connor (29 September 1910 – 18 September 1987) was an Australian politician. He was educated at
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
schools before becoming a clerk, as well as an organiser of the
Australian Workers' Union The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) is one of Australia's largest and oldest trade unions. It traces its origins to unions founded in the pastoralism, pastoral and mining industries in the late 1880s and it currently has approximately 80,000 ...
. In 1946, he was elected to the
Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Australian Senate, Senate. Its composition and powers are set out in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. ...
as the
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member for West Sydney. Following that election, one of the defeated candidates for the seat, Ronald Sarina, petitioned the High Court to declare O'Connor's election void, claiming that O'Connor's adherence to the Roman Catholic faith represented allegiance to a foreign power, which would make him ineligible to be a member of parliament under
Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia, Australian Constitution lists the grounds for disqualification on who may become a candidate for election to the Parliament of Australia. It has generally arisen for consideration by the High Court of ...
. Sarina's solicitor sought leave to withdraw the petition, which was granted. Following the redistribution of 1949, O'Connor transferred to
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, which he held until 1955. In that year, Martin was abolished, and O'Connor defeated sitting Labor MP
Arthur Greenup Arthur Edward Greenup (11 July 1902 – 3 August 1980) was a trade unionist and politician in New South Wales, Australia. Early life Born in Sydney, he became a shop assistant at the age of 14. He was an organiser and eventually the President o ...
for preselection for the seat of Dalley. O'Connor held Dalley until its abolition in 1969, at which time he retired. He died in 1987, at age 76.


References

Australian people of Irish descent Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for West Sydney Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Martin Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Dalley Members of the Australian House of Representatives 1910 births 1987 deaths Australian MPs 1946–1949 Australian MPs 1949–1951 Australian MPs 1951–1954 Australian MPs 1954–1955 Australian MPs 1955–1958 Australian MPs 1958–1961 Australian MPs 1961–1963 Australian MPs 1963–1966 Australian MPs 1966–1969 {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub