Donald Alastair Cameron

Donald Alastair Cameron (17 March 1900 – 5 January 1974) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and served in federal parliament from 1946 to 1961, representing the Division of Oxley in Queensland. He was a doctor by profession and held ministerial office as Minister for Health in the Menzies government from 1956 to 1961. After losing his seat he served a term as High Commissioner to New Zealand (1962–1965).

Early life Cameron was born in Ipswich, Queensland. He received his education at Ipswich Grammar School and the University of Sydney, where he graduated in arts and medicine. From 1927 to 1933 he was a medical officer at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Coast Hospital in Sydney. In 1933, he married Rhoda Florence McLean. They settled at Ipswich where he practised medicine until the Second World War, in which he served as a colonel in the Australian Army Medical Corps in the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre and New Guinea. He was mentioned in despatches and made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1946.

Politics After the war, Cameron joined the newly formed Liberal Party of Australia and, at the 1949 election, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the new seat of Oxley, based on Ipswich. He was Minister for Health in the Menzies government from 1956 to 1961. He was also appointed minister in charge of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in 1960 following Richard Casey's retirement. At the 1961 election he was unexpectedly defeated by the young Australian Labor Party candidate Bill Hayden.

Death Cameron died in the Brisbane suburb of Chermside.