[1][2] 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.
Lamont subsequently returned to Australia, where he served as senior history master at Brisbane Grammar School until his election to parliament.
On 7 September that year, he addressed people attending a protest rally at the University of Queensland to dissuade them from forcing a confrontation, and then condemned the ban in parliament, citing his encounter with the students.
Lamont once stated that, after the 1977 election, he had been offered a promotion to the ministry by Russ Hinze if he promised to stop commenting on police corruption and civil liberties issues, and that he had replied, "If that's the price, I don't want it.
"[6][7][8][9][4][2] Lamont discovered during 1977 that the police Special Branch had been conducting surveillance of him and other Liberal dissidents, and was reporting directly to Bjelke-Petersen.
[1] He was a close friend of late Liberal Senator Neville Bonner, and strongly criticised his 1983 preselection loss to David MacGibbon.