Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Prime Minister’s condolence motion and to pay tribute to Clyde Cameron, the former member for Hindmarsh and Whitlam government minister. My father, Al, revered Clyde Cameron, and he will be immensely proud of his son speaking today about Clyde’s death and his life. I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to Clyde Cameron’s family, friends and comrades in their bereavement. The lives of a select number of people reflect and illuminate the life and times of our nation, and Clyde Cameron’s story is one such life. For over 70 years he was a leading light of the labour movement, a Labor Party stalwart, and his life spanned four-fifths of the history of the Australian Labor Party, founded in 1891. The ALP and the union shaped his life, and he in turn did much to shape our history.

Anyone who followed politics in the 1960s and 1970s will remember Clyde Cameron as one of Labor’s legendary hard men, the last of the 49ers. Clyde was a prolific chronicler of the Labor Party’s history and a tough warrior for the working class. He was an intelligent and able parliamentarian who spent decades on the political front line in opposition. In fact, he holds the rather inauspicious political record of the longest period of service in opposition, sitting for 28 years on the opposition benches. He was dedicated to the interests of the working people of Australia, and it remains a great tragedy that he spent the best years of his life out of office.

When I was a kid, in my household in Ipswich, Kim Beazley Sr, Fred Daly and Clyde Cameron were the patron saints of the labour movement, akin to St Peter, St Paul and St John. We discussed around the kitchen table their adventures, what they did and how they stood up for the Labor Party and the labour movement. I recall my father, who describes himself as ‘a good old-fashioned leftie’ and is a bit concerned that his son is a bit further to the right than he would like, talking in reverent tones about Clyde. He idolised the man for his contribution to the labour movement and dedication to the cause. Clyde was a proud upholder of the Labor Party’s working-class roots and was never afraid to speak his mind. He was greatly influenced by his mother, who was a Quaker who always claimed that Jesus Christ was the world’s first communist.

Clyde became passionate about the Labor Party, a party of which he was a member for 70 years. There is a great story about how a dead sheep forced him into the Labor Party, and about his experiences dealing with his employer at the time. My local former member, Bill Hayden, the former Governor-General, who worked alongside Clyde Cameron in the Whitlam Labor ministry, said that he was from the old school of hard Labor players and a great friend, but also a difficult and unforgiving enemy. I think Bill was probably correct there. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke once described Clyde Cameron as a great hater, saying that he made his mark as one of the most aggressive and uncompromising Labor members ever to enter parliament. Clyde’s politics were forged in the shearing shed, where he moved through the union office, into parliament and onto Whitlam’s front bench. For the duration of his entire career, he fought for strong working-class values. He became a curiosity in many ways, an oddity: a vocal socialist in the Australian Workers Union, a union traditionally associated with the more moderate elements of the Australian Labor Party.

Clyde became a rouseabout at Ashmore Station in 1928 and was elected as a union organiser with the AWU in South Australia in 1938, where he was endearingly called ‘Shithouse Cameron’ because of his insistence that shearers be given decent toilet facilities. It was a memorable way to start a career in the union movement. He became state secretary of the union in 1941 and was elected president of the South Australian branch of the ALP in 1946. He was the Minister for Labour in the Whitlam Labor government. As labour minister he captured primary responsibility for wages from the Treasury and he sought and supported equal pay for women, a fact not always remembered. Women of Australia should be proud of the contribution that Clyde Cameron has made in that regard. In 1975 he became the minister for science in a cabinet reshuffle which led him to be very angry, I think, for what happened. He retired from parliament in 1980.

He wrote two books: Unions in Crisis in 1982 and The Cameron Diaries in 1990. He remained a great contributor, and his life is a contribution. He was a servant to, and made sacrifices for, the Labor Party and the labour movement. Even after his retirement he mentored people. He helped the party with contributions and fundraising in South Australia and elsewhere. He mentored young Labor Party movement activists and union officials. He will be remembered for his lifelong commitment to the Australian workers and their welfare. He hated conservativism with a deep and abiding passion, and he made no secret of it. I remember as a boy seeing him on TV talking about it. But he could be friendly and courteous to conservatives, as the member for Mayo mentioned just the other day.

For all his idealism and radicalism, he was still pragmatic enough in the 1960s to side with opposition leader Gough Whitlam in the troubles in Victoria. His support for Whitlam in his showdown with the socialist Left clique in the troublesome Victorian ALP executive was crucial to federal intervention, power sharing and thereby Labor’s victory nationally in 1972. I commend the book A Life on the Left because it chronicles in detail those wonderful factional machinations which really were crucial to Labor wining in 1972. In fact Gough Whitlam once wrote of Clyde Cameron that he was ‘a principal architect of victory’ in 1972. We should all be proud on this side of the House.

A political animal and great storyteller, Clyde Cameron was brilliant at elucidating political strategy and dispensing profound insights into the world of politics. I must confess to having used his Clydeisms on many occasions in speeches I have made. In his address to the National Press Club in 1990 he delivered his political code, comprising the 21 golden rules of Clyde. Some of Clyde’s greatest political lessons to live by include: ‘It is better to overrate one’s opponent than to overrate one’s own ability’ and ‘The best line of defence in politics, as in war, is the frontal attack.’ He lived that life always. This sounded a bit like a Johism from Queensland: ‘Birds of a feather flocking together happen all the time,’ so it is a good idea to observe who is talking, eating or drinking with whom. That is the best way to keep tabs on doubtful allies. I like this one: ‘Never deny, or seek to defend, a mistake. It is far better to admit that one is not the Pope.’ These are just a few of Clyde’s great insights into great life. Thank you, Clyde, for your contribution to Australia, the Labor Party and the labour movement.

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