Clyde Cameron | |
|---|---|
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| Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs | |
| In office 6 June 1975 – 11 November 1975 | |
| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Bill Morrison |
| Succeeded by | Bob Cotton |
| Minister for Labor and Immigration | |
| In office 12 June 1974 – 6 June 1975 | |
| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Himself (Labour) Al Grassby (Immigration) |
| Succeeded by | Jim McClelland |
| Minister for Labour | |
| In office 19 December 1972 – 12 June 1974 | |
| Prime Minister | Gough Whitlam |
| Preceded by | Phillip Lynch |
| Succeeded by | Himself (Labour and Immigration) |
| Father of the House | |
| In office 11 November 1977 – 19 September 1980 | |
| Preceded by | Kim Beazley Sr. |
| Succeeded by | Sir William McMahon |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forHindmarsh | |
| In office 10 December 1949 – 19 September 1980 | |
| Preceded by | Albert Thompson |
| Succeeded by | John Scott |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1913-02-11)11 February 1913 |
| Died | 14 March 2008(2008-03-14) (aged 95) |
| Political party | Labor |
| Spouses | |
| Relations | Don Cameron (brother) Terry Cameron (nephew) |
| Occupation | Shearer, unionist |
Clyde Robert Cameron,AO (11 February 1913 – 14 March 2008) was an Australian politician. He was a member of theAustralian Labor Party (ALP) and served in theHouse of Representatives from 1949 to 1980, representing theDivision of Hindmarsh. He was a leading figure in theAustralian labour movement and held ministerial office in theWhitlam government asMinister for Labour (1972–1974),Labor and Immigration (1974–1975), andScience and Consumer Affairs (1975).
Cameron was born inMurray Bridge, South Australia, the son of a shearer of Scottish descent. He was educated atGawler but left school at 14 to work as a shearer. During the very worst years of theGreat Depression, he was unemployed, and the experience of joblessness was one that he never forgot or forgave. When he finally got work, later in the 1930s, he ended up having to travel to every Australian state and also toNew Zealand. He was active in theAustralian Workers' Union and theAustralian Labor Party from an early age, becoming an AWU organiser and then South Australian State President and a federal vice-president of the union in 1941. From 1943 to 1948, he was the union's industrial advocate and taught himself industrial law. In 1946, he became State President of the Labor Party.
In 1939, Cameron married Ruby Krahe (always called "Cherie") with whom he had three children (twins Warren and Tania, and a second son Noel). In 1949, he suffered a personal crisis when all three children were affected bypoliomyelitis (infantile paralysis). He also learned that his youngest son had anintellectual disability. Although they all eventually recovered from polio, the ordeal permanently affected Cameron and contributed to the breakup of his marriage. In 1966, the Camerons were divorced and in 1967, he remarried, now to Dorothy Bradbury.
He was the uncle ofTerry Cameron.[1]
Cameron was the most powerful figure in the South Australian labour movement in the years immediately after World War II. At the1949 election, he was elected to theHouse of Representatives for the safe Labor seat ofHindmarsh and left his brotherDon (later a senator) in charge of the South Australian AWU. He rapidly made his mark as one of the most aggressive and uncompromising Labor members ever to enter the Australian Parliament. Cameron regarded the conservatives with a deep and personal hatred and made no secret of it. He rapidly emerged as one of the leaders of theleft wing of theCaucus, led at that time byEddie Ward, who became Cameron's mentor. Nonetheless, he was an intelligent and able parliamentarian.
It was the tragedy of Labor politicians of Cameron's generation that Labor spent almost a quarter of a century in Opposition, from 1949 to 1972, with the result that Cameron, like many others, spent his best years out of office. During the Labor Split of the 1950s, Cameron became a leading supporter of federal Labor Leader DrH.V. Evatt and an opponent of the right-wing Catholic faction. He was among those who insisted for all the "Groupers" to be expelled from the party. He also conducted a long feud with the right-wing (but anti-Grouper) federal leadership of the AWU led byTom Dougherty, one of a long list of people whom Cameron detested.
By the 1960s, Cameron realised Labor would never win a federal election again unless it could find both a leader and a set of policies acceptable to an increasingly middle-class electorate. Ward's death in 1963 marked the end of the old Depression-era leftism in the federal Caucus. The younger leftist leaders such as Cameron,Jim Cairns andTom Uren were sober enough to adapt to the changed circumstances. Cameron became increasingly critical ofArthur Calwell's leadership but supported Calwell in his passionately opposing theVietnam War.
Calwell retired in 1967 and was succeeded byGough Whitlam. Although he disagreed with Whitlam on many issues, after 1968, Cameron became a supporter of Whitlam's leadership. In 1969, Whitlam made Cameron Shadow Minister for Employment. Cameron's decisive influence helped Whitlam gain control of theFederal Executive. In 1970 he supported Whitlam's intervention in the Labor Party'sVictorian branch which was controlled by the extreme left.
At theDecember 1972 election Labor came to office under Whitlam, and Cameron becameMinister for Labour at the age of 59. He created a sensation by dismissing the permanent head of his department, SirHalford Cook and bringing in an outsider; he was always deeply suspicious of senior public servants. However, he greatly improved the pay and conditions of other public servants by using the public sector to set new benchmarks, which he hoped would be extended to the private sector. Revealing himself to be an unsuspectedfeminist, he hiredMary Gaudron (later the first woman on theHigh Court bench) to argue before the Arbitration Commission for equal pay for women workers. His senior advisor wasJohn Bannon, laterPremier of South Australia. FollowingAl Grassby's defeat at the1974 election, Cameron becameMinister for Labour and Immigration.
The unions had high hopes that Cameron would bring greatly improved benefits for industrial workers. Unfortunately for Cameron, the Australian economy began to deteriorate rapidly in 1974, as a result of theinflation caused by theoil shock, and the government came under increasing pressure to hold back wage increases, which were seen by orthodox economists to be fuelling inflation. Cameron resisted that pressure, and his relations with Whitlam deteriorated. At the same time, he became increasingly critical of the more irresponsible union leaders, who, he believed, blindly pursued wage rises without regard to the state of the economy or to theincomes policy of their own Labor government. Still, in the twelve months from September 1973, Cameron claimed to have presided over "the greatest redistribution in the favour of wage earners ever to be recorded in any one year by any country in the world."[2]
By 1975 the Whitlam government was in crisis and Whitlam reshuffled the cabinet by bringing inBill Hayden as Treasurer andJim McClelland as Minister for Labour and Immigration. Cameron refused to resign as Labour and Immigration Minister, and Whitlam was forced to ask theGovernor-General, SirJohn Kerr, to withdraw his commission. He was eventually persuaded to accept the position ofMinister for Science and Consumer Affairs.
Cameron thus became once again Whitlam's implacable enemy, but with thedismissal of Whitlam's government in November, there was little he could do. He withdrew to the backbench, where he remained for the next five years until he retired from Parliament, after the1980 election.
Cameron was involved in theGeorgist movement and wrote for the Georgist Education Association.[3]
In the 1982 Australia Day Honours, he was appointed an Officer of theOrder of Australia.[4]
Clyde Cameron College was run by theAustralian Trade Union Training Authority from 1977 until its abolition in 1996.
Well into his last years, he remained a frequent contributor to public debate, uttering various remarks showing a surprisingly respectful attitude towards his contemporary and former antagonistB. A. Santamaria. The two men never met, but when Santamaria died in 1998, Cameron (as reported by the Santamaria-founded magazineNews Weekly) paid him a warm tribute by saying that "his soul was not for sale." Inspired by his marathon interview with Ashforth, Cameron contacted Santamaria and the two sat for dozens of hours of taped discussions. Cameron went on to interview other colleagues and rivals, adding to the extraordinary archive for which he will ultimately be best remembered.
He was awarded theCentenary Medal in 2001.[5]
Cameron died at his home on Sunlake Place inTennyson, South Australia, at age 95.[6] He was survived by three children, six grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister for Labour 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Labour and Immigration 1974–1975 | |
| Preceded by | Minister for Science andConsumer Affairs 1975 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| Preceded by | Member forHindmarsh 1949–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Father of the House of Representatives 1977–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Earliest serving living MP 2007 – 2008 | Succeeded by |
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