Donald Cameron (Australian politician)

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For other Australian politicians named Donald Cameron, see Donald Cameron, Australian politician (disambiguation).

Donald Cameron (19 January 1878 - 20 August 1962), Australian politician, was born in Melbourne of working-class parents. He was educated in state schools and served in the Australian Army in the Boer War. He settled in Western Australia where he worked as a plumber and became an official of the plumbers' union and later secretary of the Trades Hall. Returning to Melbourne in 1919 he became active in the Victorian Socialist Party, a Marxist party. He was secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall, editor of the Tramways Union newspaper and President of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Cameron was elected to the Australian Senate in 1937. When John Curtin formed a Labor government in 1941, Cameron became an Honorary Minister, and later Minister for Aircraft production in the wartime government. In the Chifley government from 1945 to 1949 he was Postmaster-General. From 1946 to 1949 he was Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in the Senate. Aged 71 when the Chifley government left office, he returned to the backbench, and retired at the 1961 election.