Peter O'Neill

O'Neill's father moved to Papua New Guinea in 1949 as an Australian government field officer (also known as a kiap) and later served as a magistrate in Goroka until his death in 1982.

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.

O'Neill was educated at Pangia Primary School, Ialibu High School, and Goroka High School.

Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019.

O'Neill was born on 13 February 1965 in Pangia, Territory of Papua, in the present-day Southern Highlands Province.

His 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.

After leaving school, he obtained a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) in 1986.

He later received a degree with honors in accounting from UPNG.

He also obtained a professional qualification and became a Certified Practicing Accountant in 1989.

A year later, he became president of the Papua New Guinea Institute of Certified Practicing Accountants.

O'Neill was then a partner in Pratley and O'Neill's accounting firm.

He combined this with a substantial number of directorships, often as executive chairman, including at the PNG Banking Corporation when it was government-owned.

He has been a Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pangia since 2002.

O'Neill entered politics in 2002 as a Member of Parliament representing Ialibu-Pangia under Prime Minister Michael Somare.

As a member of the People's National Congress (PNC), O'Neill was part of the coalition government and was appointed to the Cabinet as the Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations, then reassigned in 2003 as the Minister for Public Service.

However, in 2004, he was dropped from the Cabinet, and the PNC left the coalition to join the opposition.

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.

In response, O'Neill tried to mount a vote of no confidence without success since Somare and Nape used procedural issues to stop this.

He was a former cabinet minister and the leader of the People's National Congress between 2006 and 2022.

He resigned his position as prime minister to avoid a vote of no confidence, and he was succeeded by James Marape.

O'Neill won re-election to the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea in 2022 in the first round with a large majority, which is unusual in the country.

After the 2007 elections, O'Neill rejoined Somare's government as the Minister of the Public Service.

In July 2010, he was appointed Minister of Finance.

When Somare was hospitalised in 2011, Sam Abal was appointed acting prime minister, who demoted O'Neill to Works Minister in July 2011.

In April 2011, Somare fell ill and flew to Singapore for treatment.

O'Neill then led the opposition in ousting Abal as acting prime minister.

He was then elected by the Parliament as prime minister with 70 of the 94 votes cast.

O'Neill's claim to the position was challenged by both the East Sepik Province, where Somare was also governor, and Somare himself when he returned from Singapore.

The Supreme Court ruled that Somare was the legitimate prime minister, but O'Neill retained overwhelming support in parliament.

O'Neill and Somare both claimed the title of prime minister and thus arose the 2011–2012 Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis.

It was resolved when the Governor General decided to call for new elections.

In the 2012 general election, O'Neill's PNC obtained 27 seats, an increase from the 5 seats in the previous Parliament.

A broad coalition appeared to support him, with 94 seats out of the 119-member Parliament.

This coalition contained three ex-prime ministers, among whom was Somare.

The PNC, which was headed by O'Neill, was the largest political party based the outcome of the 2017 elections.

The election of former prime minister Mekere Morauta in the 2017 Papua New Guinean general election was a challenge, but this did not endanger the position of O'Neill.

His party had the most seats, and this entitled O'Neill constitutionally to form the government.

However, the PNC won a mere 21 seats in the 106-seat parliament.

This was substantially less than the 52 seats the PNC had occupied at the end of the previous parliament.

He needed to form a coalition from a weak base in a fragmented parliament.