Colin Lamont (politician)

Colin Charles Lamont (18 November 1941 – 7 July 2012) was an Australian politician. He was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1974 until 1977, representing the electorate of South Brisbane.

Early life

Lamont was born Colin Bird in Brisbane, and changed his name officially in 1965. He was educated at Wilston State School, Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Teachers' College, and subsequently studied political science, history and government at the University of Queensland. While at university, he was the arts representative on the student representative council, editor of Semper Floreat, and was the Queensland education officer of the National Union of Australian University Students in 1963. In 1964, Lamont served as national director of Abschol, a committee of the union supporting scholarships for indigenous students.^[1][2]

Lamont worked as a state secondary school teacher after graduating from university, undertook further study in London, before serving a stint as a Detective-Inspector with the Royal Hong Kong Police from 1966 to 1971. He was injured at one stage during his Hong Kong service when a homemade bomb exploded while he was attempting to defuse it.^[3] He was seconded to MI6's special intelligence branch upon for a period upon his recovery. Lamont subsequently returned to Australia, where he served as senior history master at Brisbane Grammar School until his election to parliament. He was also active in debating circles, serving as President of the Queensland Debating Union in 1973 and as president of the Queensland Liberal Speakers' Group from 1973 to 1975.^[1]

In parliament

In 1974, Lamont was preselected as the Liberal candidate for the usually safe Labor seat of South Brisbane, in what was seen at the time as a test run for a future bid for the federal seat of Brisbane. Lamont reportedly told a senior cabinet minister on the day before the election that he thought he might win, only to be told "Don’t get carried away, Col, you need 11 per cent and the state swing is going to be about seven per cent." He won the seat with a 17% swing as Labor suffered one of the worst defeats in its history, taking a seat that had since 1912 only ever fallen to the conservatives for one term following the 1957 Labor split and for one term during the Great Depression.^[4]

In parliament, Lamont was a fierce advocate for transparency and accountability of government. He opposed Bjelke-Petersen's appointment of Labor renegade Albert Field to the Senate against convention during the 1975 constitutional crisis, and opposed Bjelke-Petersen's appointment of Terry Lewis as police commissioner - who would subsequently be jailed for corruption. When Lewis' reforming predecessor Ray Whitrod resigned as Police Commissioner in 1976 in protest at Bjelke-Petersen's promotion of Lewis to Assistant Commissioner, Lamont went on television to call for Whitrod to withdraw his resignation.^[5]

He staunchly opposed Bjelke-Petersen's ban on street marches in 1977; on 7 September that year, he addressed marchers for a planned rally at the University of Queensland to dissuade them from forcing a confrontation, and then condemned the ban in parliament, citing his encounter with the students. In response, Lamont stated that Bjelke-Petersen lunged at him on the floor of parliament and stated "you are a traitor to this government!" for his attack on the ban. Lamont once stated that he had been offered a promotion to the ministry by Russ Hinze after the 1977 election if he promised to stay away from police corruption and civil liberties, and that he had replied "If that's the price, I don't want it."^{[6][7][8][9][4][2]} Lamont discovered during 1977 that the police special branch had been conducting surveillance of him and other Liberal dissidents and reporting directly to Bjelke-Petersen.^[9]

His seat was intentionally made unwinnable by Bjelke-Petersen in a redistribution before the 1977 election; he attempted to switch to the seat of Woodridge, but was defeated by Bill D'Arcy.^[9] His Labor successor in South Brisbane, Jim Fouras, recounted being told by National Party MPs at the time of his election that they had changed South Brisbane's boundaries because they would rather have a Labor member than another term of Colin Lamont.^[4]

Post-parliament

Lamont served as head of the Brisbane Deaf School and as the state chair of the Council on Disability after his election defeat. He also remained involved in political life after his election defeat, and ran unsuccessfully for his old seat of South Brisbane at the 1980 election.^[1] He was a close friend of late Liberal Senator Neville Bonner, and strongly criticised his 1983 preselection loss to David MacGibbon.^[10] He later served as president of the Registered & Licensed Clubs Association of Queensland, lectured in politics and public policy at Griffith University and served as the Queensland chairman of the Australian Council for Education Standards.^[11][12] In retirement in 2006, he founded the Unit Owners and Body Corporate Alliance, a Gold Coast lobby group for unit owners.^[13][14][4]

Lamont died on 7 July 2012.^[4]

References