At the 1901 federal election, Cameron was elected for the
Free Trade Party as one of Tasmania's five members of the
Australian House of Representatives, since Tasmania had not been divided into electoral divisions. He was one of few to publicly oppose the
Immigration Restriction Act 1901, a cornerstone of the
White Australia policy, stating: At the 1903 election he contested the seat of
Denison, but was defeated by the
Protectionist candidate, Sir
Philip Fysh. He returned to the House when he won a
by-election in the seat of
Wilmot in 1904. He is remembered today for his part in the choice of national capital. The house was evenly divided, he effectively having the casting vote. After two weeks' prevarication he settled on
Canberra. Prior to the
1906 election, supporters of the Anti-Socialists in Cameron's electorate decided to switch their support to a new candidate,
Llewellyn Atkinson, as they believed Atkinson was more popular in the electorate and did not wish to split the vote. However, some newspapers such as
The Hobart Mercury still listed him as the endorsed Anti-Socialist candidate in Wilmot. He was defeated by Atkinson and out-polled by the Labor candidate, finishing with 12.1 percent of the vote. ==State politics and later life==