Greg O'Connor

Upon his retirement from the Police Association, O'Connor was asked whether he was considering a career in politics, but he said he had no plans to do so at that time. However, on 1 February 2017 O'Connor confirmed he was seeking the Labour Party nomination for the seat of Ōhāriu in the 2017 election to challenge incumbent Peter Dunne of United Future. On 12 February it was revealed that O'Connor had won the Labour nomination for Ōhāriu. O'Connor was also ranked 41 on Labour's party list for the election. He won the seat by a margin of 1,051 votes.

He was later elected President of the New Zealand Police Association in 1995. His time as President was highly politicized with O'Connor weighing into political debates that concerned the Police force, particularly in regards to arming officers with firearms. O'Connor called for arming the police in New Zealand and also proposed routine arming of front line response police officers. He retired as President in 2016, serving a record 21 years as the Police Association's head and regarded raising the Police Association's credibility as his main achievement during his tenure.

Gregory Eamon O'Connor (born 12 May 1958) is a former police officer who served as the President of the New Zealand Police Association, a union representing 11,500 constabulary officers and employees. In the 2017 general election he ran for the Labour Party in the Ōhāriu electorate, and won it with a majority of 1,051.