Peter O’Neill, SSC, is from Geelong, Australia, one hour west of Melbourne. He joined the Columbans in 1982. He did his OTP (now FMA) in Japan and was ordained in 1990. After his ordination, he was appointed to the Taiwan Mission Unit (TMU), where he ministered for 26 years. He first studied Mandarin for 2 years and later Taiwanese for 1 ½ years.
He began his ministry with local workers at the Columban New Life Workers Centre. He was then assigned to the Columban Hope Workers Centre (HWC) where he worked for 10 years providing social and pastoral services for migrants, trafficked people, and immigrants, as well as being actively involved in advocacy work. He was the HWC Director for 6 years. For his last 10 years in Taiwan, he was the Diocesan Coordinator for social and pastoral services for migrants, trafficked people, and immigrants. He was the Director of the Hsinchu Diocese Migrants and Immigrants Service Centre (HMISC). The HWC was a founding member of the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) in 1994. MFA is a regional network of NGOs, associations and trade unions of migrant workers and individual advocates in 18 countries across Asia committed to protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of migrant workers. HMISC became a member of MFA when Peter became the HMISC director. He was actively involved with MFA for 22 years and on its Executive Committee for 4 years. On three occasions, he joined the MFA delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council and the International Labour Conference in Geneva and was a part of the MFA delegation to the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in the Philippines, Mexico, Switzerland and Bangladesh. As a member of MFA, he was a guest speaker at many International Migration Conferences.
Following the General Assembly 2000, Brendan O’Sullivan appointed him the first Society Migrant Link Person. He held this position for about 10 years. In 2012, he represented the Society at the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference in Vietnam, where the theme was migration. While working full-time in ministry, he was the TMU Coordinator twice from 1996 to 2002 and from 2009 to 2012. By that time the General Council had approved the new TMU Structures allowing a Long-Term LM to be appointed as the TMU Coordinator. In 2012, Vida Hequilan was appointed as the first LM TMU Coordinator. Peter was the TMU LM Coordinator for 3 years, a member of the LMLT for 10 years and the FMA director for 4 years.
In July 2017, he was appointed to the ANZ Region to take up his new assignment as the Australia JPIC Coordinator. He became a member of ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans) and was a member of the ACRATH National Executive Committee for 3 years and ARCATH’s representative on the Australian Government’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme Agriculture Committee from 2019 to 2024. He has advocated for protecting the human rights of seasonal workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste. He has been a Catholic Religious Australia Justice Committee member for the last 6 years. Over the last 7 years he has been in leadership in the former ANZ Region and the Region of Oceania. In November 2017, he was elected as a member of the former ANZ Regional Council. In November 2019, he was elected as the Country Leader Australia and a member of the Regional Council Oceania. In November 2022, he was appointed as the Regional Director of Oceania. It has been a privilege ministering in RMU leadership over 16 years and he looks forward to ministering in leadership on the General Council. In preparation for the GA, he participated in the six online Guest Speaker Events prepared by the General Assembly Preparatory Committee.