Raymond James O'Connor (6 March 1926 – 25 February 2013) was an Australian politician who served as the premier of Western Australia from 25 January 1982 to 25 February 1983. He 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. O'Connor was born in Perth and attended schools 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. He 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. During World War II, he served in the Second Australian Imperial Force in New Britain and Bougainville.
O'Connor joined the Liberal Party in 1957 and was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1959. From 1965 to 1971, he was a minister in the Brand government. During this time, he served as the minister for railways and minister for transport, in which he oversaw the gauge standardisation project of the railway between Perth and Kalgoorlie. He became a minister again when Court was elected premier in 1974. He was police minister when the murder of Shirley Finn occurred in 1975, which remains unsolved but was likely done by a corrupt police officer.
O'Connor became deputy premier in 1980. When Court resigned as premier in January 1982, O'Connor was elected by his party to succeed him. The 1983 state election occurred 13 months later, in which the O'Connor government was defeated by Brian Burke and the Labor Party. The election was mainly fought on economic issues, particularly unemployment. O'Connor became opposition leader but was removed in a leadership spill in February 1984.
After resigning from Parliament in 1984, O'Connor started a consultancy business. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1989. During the WA Inc royal commission, it was determined that O'Connor had misappropriated a A$25,000 Bond Corporation cheque for himself. In May 1993, he was charged with stealing the cheque, and in February 1995, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was released on parole six months later. As a result of his conviction, his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia was terminated.
Raymond James O'Connor was born on 6 March 1926 in Perth, Western Australia, as one of eight children of Annie née Moran and Alphonsus Maurice O'Connor, a police officer. He was of Irish and English descent and was brought up as a Catholic. O'Connor's father had an interest in politics, founding a branch of the Labor Party in Quairading. He left the Labor Party in the 1950s because he thought that it was "becoming a bit communistic" and was disillusioned with the leadership of H. V. Evatt. 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.
O'Connor played sports as a teenager and young adult, winning state titles in athletics for hurdles and discus in 1943. He also 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 (WANFL) and winning the Prendergast Medal for best and fairest in the WANFL reserves in 1950.
From 1942 to 1944, O'Connor worked for farming machinery company Southern Cross Windmills. In World War II, he was involved with the Bougainville campaign. O'Connor enlisted with the Second Australian Imperial Force in April 1944. After doing jungle training in Canungra, Queensland, he embarked at Brisbane on 5 June 1945 and disembarked at Torokina on the island of Bougainville five days later, where he was transferred to the 61st Battalion. Bougainville was where he first met Charles Court, a senior officer and future premier of Western Australia. In September 1945, O'Connor was transferred to the 26th Battalion and moved from Bougainville to Rabaul, New Britain. In October 1945, he was transferred to the 13th Field Company, where he was promoted to corporal in February 1946. He embarked at Rabaul on 29 May 1946 and arrived back in Australia eight days later. His boxing experience in the army and his initials "ROC" led him to later gain the nickname "Rocky". After being discharged in January 1947, he studied accounting but did not finish. In 1955, he bought the Beehive Tearooms, a café in Forrest Place, Perth.
After encouragement from his father, O'Connor contested the Metropolitan Province of the Western Australian Legislative Council at the 1956 state election as an "independent Liberal" candidate, receiving 884 votes out of 15,159. He campaigned against the abolition of the Legislative Council, saying that it needed to be rejuvenated and have more young people elected to it. From 1957 to 1960, he was a used car sales proprietor in Inglewood, from 1957, he was a director of the Town and Country Terminating Building Society, and from 1964 to 1966, he was a director of the Town and Country Permanent Building Society. This garnered him interest from the Liberal Party, so Liberal MLC Keith Watson asked him to join the party in 1957 and contest the seat of North Perth in the Legislative Assembly, which was held by Labor's Stan Lapham. 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 O'Connor transferred to the adjacent electoral district of Mount Lawley. Before becoming a minister, O'Connor's interests were in police and housing. He often suggested changes to the Police Act to the party room, believing it was out of date. In March 1965, he became the honorary minister assisting the minister for railways and transport, Charles Court. Following the passage of the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1965 in August that year, the ministry was expanded by two, allowing O'Connor to take over from Court as the minister for transport, and from February 1967, as the minister for railways as well.
As the minister for transport, O'Connor introduced compulsory seatbelts for passenger vehicles. He 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. In an interview in 1996, he said that compulsory seatbelts "turned out to be the right thing, no doubt about that". As the minister for railways, he oversaw the gauge standardisation project of the railway between Perth and Kalgoorlie, which enabled people to travel to and from the eastern states by rail without changing trains. In February 1970, he travelled on the inaugural Indian Pacific train from Sydney to Perth, a journey only made possible by the gauge standardisation.
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. He became involved in controversy when, during a debate on legislation to form the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB), he said that he had been offered a bribe to oppose the TAB. The chairman of the subsequent royal commission said he personally believed the bribe had been offered, but that could not be proven.
The Liberals lost the 1971 state election, and O'Connor moved with the rest of the party to the opposition benches. When Brand resigned from the Liberal Party's leadership in 1972, it was commonly accepted that Charles Court would succeed him. A group of MPs put O'Connor forward as a token candidate to make sure that Court did not take the leadership for granted. O'Connor indicated he would accept the nomination, but declined during the party room meeting, so Court was elected unopposed. O'Connor later said that he withdrew because his marriage had recently ended and he had claimed to be blackmailed. O'Connor contested the deputy leadership ballot but lost to Des O'Neil. Two years later, the Liberals won the 1974 state election, and formed a coalition with the National Country Party, led by Ray McPharlin. The Court–McPharlin ministry was formed on 8 April 1974, with O'Connor becoming the minister for transport again and the position of minister for railways being abolished. He was also the minister for police, the minister for traffic, and, from 1 May 1974, the minister for traffic safety. In May 1975, the National Country Party left the Coalition due to a policy dispute between McPharlin and Court. The National Country Party re-joined the Coalition later that month after McPharlin was replaced as leader by Dick Old. The ministry was reconstituted as the Court ministry, which resulted in the Liberal Party gaining the position of Deputy Premier instead of the National Party. O'Connor retained all his ministries except traffic safety.