Colin Lamont (politician)

Colin Lamont
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for South Brisbane
In office
7 December 1974 – 12 November 1977
Preceded by Fred Bromley
Succeeded by Jim Fouras
Personal details
Born Colin Charles Bird
(1941-11-18)18 November 1941
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Died 7 July 2012(2012-07-07) (aged 70)
Queensland, Australia
Nationality Australian
Political party Liberal Party
Spouse(s) Janette Alexander (m.1974)
Alma mater University of Queensland
Occupation Teacher, Police officer

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 by deed poll 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, 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.

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.[1] 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.[2]

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.[3]

In parliament, Lamont was a fierce advocate for transparency and accountability of government. He 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 that he had replied "If that's the price, I don't want it." He publicly dissented from the Bjelke-Petersen government on numerous occasions, staunchly opposing Bjelke-Petersen's anti-street march laws and addressing a large rally at the University of Queensland. He also 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.[4][5][6][7][3] 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.[7]

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.[7] 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.[3]

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.[2] He was a close friend of late Liberal Senator Neville Bonner, and strongly criticised his 1983 preselection loss to David MacGibbon.[8] 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.[9][10] In retirement in 2006, he founded the Unit Owners and Body Corporate Alliance, a Gold Coast lobby group for unit owners.[11][12][3]

Lamont died on 7 July 2012.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Aussies save a fortune using cheap overseas dentists; All smiles after driller in Manila", The Sunday Mail, 21 May 2006
  2. 1 2 "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Motion of Condolence: Lamont, Mr. C. C." (PDF), Hansard, 21 August 2012, pp. 1496–1500, retrieved 2013-01-31
  4. ↑ Perry, Charles (24 May 1978). "Ex-Liberal MP Blasts Anti-March Legislation" (PDF). Semper Floreat. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  5. ↑ Wanna, John; Arklay, Tracey, The Ayes Have It: A History of the Queensland Parliament, 1957-1989, Chapter 10, retrieved 12 June 2012
  6. ↑ Lamont, Colin (30 May 2005), The Joh Years: Lest We Forget, Online Opinion, retrieved 12 June 2012
  7. 1 2 3 Fishpool, Mike (29 April 1998), Free Lewis if he tells all, says former foe, The Courier-Mail
  8. ↑ Koch, Tony (28 July 2001), "Libs 'repeating Bonner incident'", The Courier-Mail
  9. ↑ Giles, Darrell (12 February 2006), "Dumbed down - overhaul targets 'appalling' literacy", The Sunday Mail
  10. ↑ Lamont, Colin (12 February 2006), "Teachers adrift without support", The Sunday Mail
  11. ↑ "Group to hammer scammers", Gold Coast Sun, 26 April 2006
  12. ↑ Brooking, Heather (1 August 2007), "Unit alliance keeps Colin's body healthy", Gold Coast Bulletin
Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by
Fred Bromley		 Member for South Brisbane
1974–1977 		Succeeded by
Jim Fouras
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