Ross Cameron

Ross Alexander Cameron (born 14 May 1965), Australian politician, was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 to October 2004, representing the Division of Parramatta, New South Wales.

Early life

The son of Jim Cameron, a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, he was born in Sydney, New South Wales, grew up in Turramurra in Sydney and was educated at Knox Grammar School and Sydney University. He was a lawyer before entering politics. He was policy adviser and research officer to the New South Wales Minister for Transport, Bruce Baird, and an intern to United States Republican Senator Mark Hatfield.

Member of Parliament

Cameron was elected to parliament in the 1996 Federal election, winning the Division of Parramatta from the sitting Labor member Paul Elliott. A noted orator, he delivered his maiden speech to the House of Representatives without notes.^[1] Cameron held the traditionally Labor seat of Parramatta for three terms.

While a member of parliament, Cameron was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Family and Community Services from 2001–2003 and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer (Peter Costello) 2003–2004.^[2]

Cameron ran regular prayer meetings for politicians in his office in Parliament House.^[3] Mark Latham former leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005, wrote of Ross Cameron in 1997: "Ross Cameron, the..... Liberal member for Parramatta, has talked me into participating in his youth leadership forum in Canberra. I rather suspect it's a front for mobilising Christian soldiers, plus some quality box for Ross".^[4]

Cameron ran an eight year campaign while in office against the Parliament House contemporary art collection.^[5][6]

In August 2004, Cameron revealed in an interview in Good Weekend that he had an extramarital affair with an "exotic solicitor" while his wife was pregnant with twins.^[7] Cameron "was a frequent overnight visitor to the house his mistress shared with a reporter".^[8] In Truth Overboard, journalist Tom Dusevic wrote in Time Magazine that once Cameron's story was in the public domain "...reporters in Canberra immediately ran with further details of Cameron's private life, unleashing stories they'd been sitting on for years" which included accounts of numerous other affairs which he had failed to disclose in the original interview with Good Weekend.^[9][10][11]

Mark Bahnisch wrote "He was probably.... unwise not to enquire of the “exotic solicitor”‘s flatmate what her occupation was – she turned out to be a member of the Canberra Press Gallery – hence his pre-emptive confession."

At the October 2004 Federal election, he lost his seat to Labor candidate Julie Owens; he was one of only three coalition members to lose their seat at that election.

Christianity and The Fellowship

Cameron, along with several other Australian Politicians, has been associated with the American evangelical Christian organisation, The Fellowship/The Family.^[12] US Senator Mark Hatfield, with whom Cameron served an internship, is a significant leader in the secretive organisation.^{[13][14][15][16]}

After Parliament

After his departure from parliament, he joined Macquarie Bank's Investment Banking Group, working primarily on partnerships between the public and private sectors. He left Macquarie in 2008.^[17]

Cameron was a founder and original board member of MyATM, along with three time undischarged bankrupt ^[18][19] Don Fleming (currently owing $24million),^[20][21][22] Kym Weir, Tim Scala and Grant Chapman. According to The Business Spectator he bought 15,787,600 shares for $3,946,900 on April 1, 2010 and April 2, becoming a substantial shareholder with 15,787,600 shares (7.52%). In a written statement outlining controversial business man Mr Fleming's involvement with the company, Mr Scala said: "Don Fleming founded My ATM jointly with Ross Cameron and myself"^{[21][23][24][25][26][27][28]} Cameron controversially resigned from the board of directors of MyATM four months after the public float, he remains on the board of Aussie ATM and My ATM New Zealand.^{[29][30][31][32][33]}

Since 2013, Cameron has been a regular contributor to programs on Sky News Australia. From July 2014, Cameron became a co-host alongside Kristina Keneally on weekly panel show The Contrarians every Friday afternoon, before the pair were given their own self-titled program Keneally and Cameron.^[34]

Potential return to politics

In September, 2011 Cameron said he may run for a seat at the next federal election and had discussed the matter with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. While he ruled out running for his old seat of Parramatta, Liberal sources said he was considering putting his hand up for seats such as Dobell, Robertson or Kingsford Smith or the Senate, but it would depend on how his business interests were going.^[30]

References

External links

• 2004 Good Weekend article on Cameron