Born in Melbourne, he was educated at Geelong Grammar School and then the Royal Australian Naval College.

He was a lieutenant aboard HMAS Australia during the battles of Leyte in October 1944 and Lingayen Gulf in January 1945.

Narrowly defeated by Labor candidate Gareth Clayton in 1974, he became a political columnist for The Age newspaper and undertook a Master of Arts at Monash University in Constitutional Law, studying the historical role of the Australian Senate.

[2] He was a keen supporter of the establishment of the National Film and Sound Archive as a way to collect and make accessible Australia's rich audiovisual history.

[2] In 2004 the Hamer Family Fund was set up in honour of all four siblings and its aims include projects that advance the arts, the environment and good government in Australia.