Clyde Cameron

Clyde Robert Cameron,

He was the uncle of Terry Cameron.^[1]

Early political career

Cameron was the most powerful figure in the South Australian labour movement in the years immediately after World War II. At the 1949 election, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the safe Labor seat of Hindmarsh and left his brother Don (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 the left wing of the Caucus, led at that time by Eddie 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 Dr

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 and Tom Uren were sober enough to adapt to the changed circumstances. Cameron became increasingly critical of Arthur Calwell's leadership but supported Calwell in his passionately opposing the Vietnam War.

Calwell retired in 1967 and was succeeded by

Cabinet minister

At the

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 the inflation caused by the oil 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 the incomes 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 in

Cameron thus became once again Whitlam's implacable enemy, but with the dismissal 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 the 1980 election.

After politics

Cameron was involved in the Georgist movement and wrote for the Georgist Education Association.^[3]

In the 1982 Australia Day Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia.^[4]

Clyde Cameron College was run by the Australian 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 antagonist B. A. Santamaria. The two men never met, but when Santamaria died in 1998, Cameron (as reported by the Santamaria-founded magazine News 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 the Centenary Medal in 2001.^[5]

Cameron died at his home on Sunlake Place in Tennyson, South Australia, at age 95.^[6] He was survived by three children, six grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Bibliography

• Daniel Connell, The Confessions of Clyde Cameron 1913-1990, ABC Enterprises 1990
• Bill Guy, A Life on the Left: A Biography of Clyde Cameron, Wakefield Press 1999

References