25 Facts About Clyde Cameron

Clyde Cameron was a member of the Australian Labor Party and served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1980, representing the Division of Hindmarsh.

Clyde Cameron was a leading figure in the Australian labour movement and held ministerial office in the Whitlam government as Minister for Labour, Labor and Immigration, and Science and Consumer Affairs.

Clyde Cameron was educated at Gawler but left school at 14 to work as a shearer.

Clyde Cameron was active in the Australian Workers' Union and the Australian 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.

In 1939, Clyde Cameron married Ruby Krahe with whom he had three children.

Clyde Cameron learned that his youngest son had an intellectual disability.

Clyde Cameron was the most powerful figure in the South Australian labour movement in the years immediately after World War II.

Clyde Cameron rapidly made his mark as one of the most aggressive and uncompromising Labor members ever to enter the Australian Parliament.

Clyde Cameron regarded the conservatives with a deep and personal hatred and made no secret of it.

Clyde Cameron 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.

Clyde Cameron was among those who insisted for all the "Groupers" to be expelled from the party.

Clyde Cameron conducted a long feud with the right-wing federal leadership of the AWU led by Tom Dougherty, one of a long list of people whom Cameron detested.

Clyde Cameron became increasingly critical of Arthur Calwell's leadership but supported Calwell in his passionately opposing the Vietnam War.

At the December 1972 election Labor came to office under Whitlam, and Clyde Cameron became Minister for Labour at the age of 59.

Clyde Cameron created a sensation by dismissing the permanent head of his department, Sir Halford Cook and bringing in an outsider; he was always deeply suspicious of senior public servants.

The unions had high hopes that Clyde Cameron would bring greatly improved benefits for industrial workers.

Clyde Cameron resisted that pressure, and his relations with Whitlam deteriorated.

Clyde Cameron refused to resign as Labour and Immigration Minister, and Whitlam was forced to ask the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, to withdraw his commission.

Clyde Cameron was eventually persuaded to accept the position of Minister for Science and Consumer Affairs.

Clyde Cameron withdrew to the backbench, where he remained for the next five years until he retired from Parliament, after the 1980 election.

Clyde Cameron was involved in the Georgist movement and wrote for the Georgist Education Association.

Clyde Cameron College was run by the Australian Trade Union Training Authority from 1977 until its abolition in 1996.

Clyde Cameron went on to interview other colleagues and rivals, adding to the extraordinary archive for which he will ultimately be best remembered.

Clyde Cameron died at his home on Sunlake Place in Tennyson, South Australia, at age 95.

Clyde Cameron was survived by three children, six grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.