Senator Deborah O’Neill

Senator Deborah O’Neill is a Labor Senator for New South Wales.  Senator O’Neill first entered Parliament in 2010, when she was elected as the Member for Robertson.  She was then elected as a Senator for New South Wales first in 2013 and again in 2016. 

She is currently the Chair of the Senate Privileges Committee in the 46th Parliament and sits on the Corporations and Financial Services committee; Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee; Education and Employment committees; and Murray-Darling Basin Plan Select Committee.

Senator O’Neill is a member of the Inaugural committee of the International Parliamentary Network for Education (IPNEd) and the Representative for Oceania.  She is also an Australian delegate to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Before entering Federal Parliament, Senator O’Neill was a high school teacher on the Central Coast for many years before taking up a lectureship in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle.  Senator O’Neill grew up in Western Sydney before moving to the Central Coast of NSW, where she and her husband raised three children and ran a small business.   Deborah believes in the profound benefits of democracy and the power of the Parliament to bring about positive change in local communities, across the nation and on the international stage.  Senator O’Neill has a passion for social justice, a belief in bringing people together to create a more inclusive society free from inequality of opportunity.

She is passionate about ensuring all people, regardless of their circumstances, have access to secure work, income and a world-class health and education system.  She is a constant advocate for the enlivening of the International Declaration on Human Rights that calls on us as signatories to meet the challenges of our times.