election, the Labour government was defeated by the National Party and O'Connor lost the West-Coast Tasman electorate to National Party list MP Chris Auchinvole by 971 votes. At this election O'Connor also stood as a list candidate for the first time since 1996; however, his position of 37 was too low for him to return to Parliament as a Labour Party list MP immediately. O'Connor eventually returned to Parliament after the retirement of former deputy leader Michael Cullen in May 2009. He retook West-Coast Tasman for Labour in 2011 and has held the seat since, defending challenges from former Westland District Mayor Maureen Pugh in 2014 and 2017. In Opposition between 2009 and 2017, O'Connor held various spokesperson roles including agriculture, biosecurity, fisheries, food safety, primary industries and rural affairs. Sixth Labour Government, 2017–present When the Labour Party formed a coalition government with New Zealand First in 2017, O'Connor was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Minister for Biosecurity, Minister for Food Safety, Minister for Rural Communities and Associate Minister (later Minister of State) for Trade and Export Growth. An early challenge for O'Connor in the Agriculture portfolio was managing the 2017 Mycoplasma bovis outbreak, opting to attempt eradication to save the projected $1.3 billion cost in lost production to the industry over 10 years, with ongoing productivity losses across the farming sector. On Agriculture, O'Connor has said there is a new “collective wisdom through generational change in farming, which means we are more closely aligned than some on the fringes wish to portray’’. During the 2020 general election, O'Connor was re-elected in West Coast-Tasman by a final margin of 6,208 votes, defeating National's candidate Maureen Pugh. In early November 2020, O'Connor maintained his Agriculture, Biosecurity, and Rural Communities ministerial portfolios while becoming the lead Minister for Trade and Export Growth and assuming the Land Information ministerial portfolio. O'Connor has led various trade negotiations across the world in his role as Minister for Trade and Export Growth, including an historic $1.8 Billion EU Free Trade Agreement in 2022. O'Connor was the Facilitator of the Fishing Subsidy negotiations at the 12th World Trade Organisation Conference and delivered an agreement with new rules barring countries from subsidising illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. At the 2022 Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum ministers’ meeting, O'Connor joined a staged walkout when the Russian Minister spoke, with the shared statement including “We condemn in the strongest terms, the