O'Neill, Peter Charles Paire, 1965–, Papua New Guinea political leader, grad. Univ. of Papua New Guinea, 1986. A businessman before he was first elected to parliament in 2002, he became leader of the People's National Congress in 2004. Under Sir Michael Somare, he became minister of finance (2007) and, later, of works and transport. In 2011 he was elected acting prime minister by parliament during Somare's absence due to illness of Somare. Somare's return resulted in a constitutional crisis, with both men contesting the office, the supreme court backing Somare and a parliamentary majority backing O'Neill. After the 2011 (and 2017) elections, O'Neill again became prime minister. He established an anticorruption task force, but was himself investigated and fought an arrest warrant (2014) for questioning; the warrant was dismissed in 2017. During his tenure, Port Moresby saw significant development, but the country's infrastructure otherwise suffered from a lack of resources. O'Neill resigned as prime minister in 2019 after he lost parliamentary support.
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