Clare O'Neil

Clare Ellen O'Neil (born 12 September 1980) is an Australian politician who is the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness since July 2024, Minister for Cities since May 2025 She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2013, representing the Victorian seat of Hotham. In 2006, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to undertake a Master of Public Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Early career O'Neil joined the Australian Labor Party at 16 and soon met Simon Crean, former party leader and her predecessor as the member for the division of Hotham. In her maiden speech, she described Crean as one of her "Labor heroes" and "a person in whose footsteps I am honoured to walk".

In March 2003, O'Neil ran as a candidate for Springvale South Ward on the City of Greater Dandenong and was subsequently elected. After one year in the position, she was also elected by fellow councillors as mayor, becoming the youngest female mayor of a local government area in Australian history.

In 2007, while studying in the United States, O'Neil worked as an intern on the New York Stock Exchange; and in 2008 returned to Australia to serve briefly as an adviser to the Office of the Commonwealth Treasurer. She retained the seat for Labor and was quickly flagged by political commentator Peter van Onselen as a future front bencher.

O'Neil is a member of the Labor Right faction. From 2013 to 2016, she served on the House of Representatives standing committees on Agriculture and Industry and Tax and Revenue. ABC News reported that she was persuaded to drop out in order to make way for fellow Victorian Right MP Richard Marles.

In 2022, O'Neil was appointed as Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security, being the first Cabinet Minister responsible for Cyber Security.

In 2024, O'Neil was removed from her role as Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security, and was moved to the portfolio of Minister for Housing and Homelessness.

Following the 2025 Australian federal election in which the Labor government was re-elected, O'Neil retained the portfolios of Housing and Homelessness, and was appointed Minister for Cities in the second Albanese ministry.

Cabinet minister

O'Neil has stated that Home Affairs must evolve to protect Australia's domestic security. As Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, O'Neil's focuses include improving Australia's response to natural disasters from climate change, improving Australia's cyber security, countering foreign interference, reforming Australia's migration system, national resilience and strengthening Australia's democracy. She has stated that Australia's migration system is broken and is not serving the needs of Australia, business or migrants. On 2 September 2022, she announced a comprehensive review of Australia's migration system to address existing challenges and set a new direction for the coming decades. This review is scheduled to report their results in early 2023.

In O'Neil's first six months as Minister for Cyber Security, Australia was subject to the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks which were at the time Australia's largest cyber attacks in Australia's history, within three weeks of each other. O'Neil has announced a comprehensive review of the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks to look at how Home Affairs can learn from these cyber attacks and what policy reform needs to be done. She has appointed a new expert advisory board to develop a new Cyber Security Strategy to improve Australia's national resilience to cyber threats and properly address the consequences of cyber incidents. O'Neil was praised for leading the Albanese Government's response to the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks and her efforts to reform cyber security in Australia. She was named 2022 Cybersecurity Person Of The Year by CyberCrime Magazine.

In May 2024, O'Neill faced calls to resign following the bashing of an elderly woman by a detainee released from immigration detention. She has also spoken on issues such as human rights violations in Cambodia, primary, secondary, and higher education, asylum seeker policy, and Australian Labor Party reform.

Economics In her maiden speech, O'Neil placed an emphasis on the importance of a strong economy in effecting a fair society and stemming disadvantage. She stated that while she believed "government should not be building great tariff walls or controlling the big macroeconomic levers",

Indigenous Australians In 2011, O'Neil spent nine months living with her partner in North East Arnhem Land, one of the northernmost regions of the Northern Territory, fostering a child and assisting local women to establish small businesses. During her time in the region, she witnessed crises in health, housing, and employment; and she has since spoken in Parliament on her desire to see action taken to resolve them: "For many decades politicians have said it is shameful. I want my generation to be the last to have to say it." O'Neil has two sons and a daughter. While living in the Northern Territory, O'Neil and her partner also cared for a child as foster parents. outside her electorate, but bought a house in Oakleigh in 2020.