Afternoon Light: Recent Episodes
Robert Menzies Institute
Afternoon Light is the podcast of the Robert Menzies Institute, a prime ministerial library and museum dedicated to the legacy of Australia’s longest-serving prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies. In Afternoon Light, we talk about Menzies’s contemporary legacy and how his values of equality, opportunity and enterprise can be upheld.
Sign up to the RMI website at: https://www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au/
Email your comments to: info@robertmenziesinstitute.org.au
Australians will soon vote on whether to constitutionally enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, but do we even accurately recall when Indigenous Australians received the vote? Many incorrectly assume this was a product of the 1967 referendum, but Warren Mundine points out that as a New South Welshman his grandfather was on the electoral roll in 1913. Learn more about the long, often tragic and turbulent road that led us here. Hear the personal story of one of the faces of the ‘no’ campaign. And discover what has led him to believe in a different ‘next step’ in the journey of Indigenous Australians.
Want to learn more? Read our On This Day Post on the 1962 Commonwealth Electoral Act.
Want to hear more? Listen to Associate Professor William Sanders discuss the reforms of Menzies’s Minister for Territories Paul Hasluck.
Bonus Fact: While Indigenous Australians were not directly robbed of the vote in NSW (which they were in QLD & WA), such a proposal was raised during a debate over the 1891 Representation of the People Bill. It was defeated on the back of a heartfelt speech by future Liberal Premier Joseph Carruthers, who had grown up around Indigenous people in rural NSW, and who argued:
'It is not of their own choice that blackfellows are in a country where they are liable to be denied the privileges enjoyed by other people. Considering the manner in which the Aborigines of the colony were treated in days gone by, it would have been a good thing if they had not only had a vote, but if one of their number had been here to voice their sufferings and their wrongs. I am sure the Committee will not deprive the Aborigines of the vote which they have had in the past. Nothing has been shown to indicate that the vote has been abused in any way, and it is consonance with the principle of one man one vote to allow these persons to possess the privilege which they have enjoyed in the past.’
When Robert Menzies was first induced to switch to Federal politics in 1934, he hesitated because he had significant reservations about spending a large amount of time in the national capital. He observed that ‘Canberra is not attractive, either personally or professionally, for obvious reasons, but I feel that the Commonwealth Parliament must still attract the services of men who are interested in public affairs if the Federal system is to continue effectively’. However, over years spent in the Lodge with his family, Menzies grew to appreciate the place, and resolved to make it a truly worthwhile monument to the nation. Through the National Capital Development Commission, the Menzies Government would oversee the construction of many of Canberra’s most enduring landmarks, from the National Library of Australia to Lake Burley Griffin itself.
Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Ted Ling, an expert on the development of Canberra.
The Treasury portfolio is generally considered the second most important ministerial position, behind only that of Prime Minister. However, despite the onerous nature and great responsibility of the posting, on several occasions the Prime Minister of the day has allocated themselves as Treasurer. This occurred with Joseph Lyons, whose government focused on combatting the devastating effects of the Great Depression, and it was also the case with Ben Chifley. However, it is often forgotten that when a Menzies Government was first sworn-in in April 1939, he too had taken on this double role. Though Menzies’s time as Treasurer was comparatively short, it was still crucial in preparing Australia for the Second World War. Even more notably, when Menzies handed the task off to Percy Spender in 1940, Australia would experiment with its first ever Keynesian budget.
Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr John Hawkins from the University of Canberra, an expert on the history of Australian Treasurers.
The Menzies era saw a number of important economic reforms including the creation of the Reserve Bank, signing of the 1957 Commerce Agreement with Japan, and the granting of the first export license for iron ore. Nevertheless, there was a settled agreement about a certain level of state involvement in the economy that was to come unstuck with ‘stagflation’ in the 1970s. The fall of the ‘Australian Settlement’ led to a period of unprecedented economic reform throughout the 80s and 90s, however that reformist spirit has long since exhausted itself. In this week’s episode, we look at some ideas for how to reinvigorate that spirit, to unshackle productivity and lift living standards for all Australians.
Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Harry Stutchbury, editor of the new book Markets and Prosperity.
Australia has often been described as a secular nation, however up until quite recently it is debatable whether that has been the case. While the government has never imposed a religion and the constitution legally bars it from doing so, the Australian people themselves have often been quite devout. What distinguishes Australia historically is religious toleration and ecumenicalism. In the 19th century we did not make the Church of England legally predominant as it was then in Britain, but we did have the government funding a range of Christian denominations. As Australia does appear to be on the path of losing its faith, it is important to take a look back at the role religion has played in our story.
Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Stephen Chavura, co-author of Reason, Religion, and the Australian Polity: A Secular State?
Since the record-breaking run of Robert Menzies, there have been 14 leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia. Each of them has been influenced in various ways by the party’s founder, as they try to take up the essential task of upholding the principles of Australian liberalism (which indeed is a political tradition which long predates Menzies himself). In this special series of the Afternoon Light podcast, we intend to speak to each of the surviving leaders of the party about their connection to Menzies, philosophical beliefs, and time spent heading the centre-right of Australian politics.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Tony Abbott, one of just four Leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia to win government from Opposition, about his beliefs and experiences in the role.
Since the record-breaking run of Robert Menzies, there have been 14 leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia. Each of them has been influenced in various ways by the party’s founder, as they try to take up the essential task of upholding the principles of Australian liberalism (which indeed is a political tradition which long predates Menzies himself). In this special series of the Afternoon Light podcast, we intend to speak to each of the surviving leaders of the party about their connection to Menzies, philosophical beliefs, and time spent heading the centre-right of Australian politics.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia between 2015-2018, about his beliefs and experiences in the role.
When the Australian Commonwealth was formed in 1901, the Constitution left education as a matter for the States and Australia had only a handful of tertiary institutions. However, as the nation grew to maturity the importance of having an educated populace grew with it. It was Menzies who first appreciated the central role that Australia’s universities could play in the national story, as he introduced Commonwealth Scholarships that gave widespread access to those with talent and ambition, and greatly increased funding to universities in a manner that would see the birth of many institutions which are now household names. Since Menzies’s time, universities have become an essential part of the Australian economy, but they face a wide array of challenges and may not be living up to the purpose he saw in them.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor Andrew Norton, an expert and researcher on Higher Education Policy.
The first Liberal leader to win a Federal election outright was not Robert Menzies, it was in fact a little-remembered prime minister named Joseph Cook. Remarkably, Cook was also the first leader of the NSW Labor party and his story reveals the how and the why of the emergence of the Australian party system, and the philosophical lines of cleavage which continue to shape our nation. Born in an English coal mining town in 1860, Cook entered the mines as a pit boy at just age nine, and his life is a remarkable tale of human agency and Australian social mobility. It was this lived experience of opportunity and success which ultimately turned Cook into a powerful and persuasive advocate of the enduring values of Australian liberalism.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Zachary Gorman, author of a new biographical monograph on Australia’s sixth prime minister Joseph Cook.
Despite being the home of the central institution of Australian democracy, Canberra was long denied its own democratic rights. Initially envisaged as a seasonal town where people would only come when Parliament sat, even once it became a fully-fledged city and national showpiece, federal governments were keen to control it so they could fashion that showpiece how they pleased. It was only in the 1980s, under the greater imperative of cost efficiencies for the federal budget, that the ACT gained its own legislature, and ever since it has maintained a distinct political culture quite unlike the rest of the country.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Gary Humphries AO about the ACT’s political history.
Enter any Australian bookshop over the last couple of decades, and you are likely to have been inundated with publications written by politicians trying to tell their life story, spill gossip and throw barbs at their colleagues. However, this was not always the case. For most of the 20th century Australian politicians were generally reluctant to write memoirs, and even when they did, someone as jovial an interesting as George Reid managed to produce a frightfully dull and dreary volume. It is only quite recently that a culture of decorum and statesmanship that prevented politicians from speaking candidly in retirement, has given way to a frenzy of honesty, or at least self-justification.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Joshua Black, from the ANU’s National Centre of Biography, about the phenomenon of Australian political memoir.
It was under Robert Menzies that Australia entered the nuclear age with the opening of the Lucas Heights Reactor in 1958. 65 years on, what looked to be the first step in a much bigger story remains practically the only step Australia has taken towards harnessing the potency of the atom to power our nation. As nuclear energy once again appears on the political radar, it is worth taking a look back and seeing what potential Australians once saw in nuclear and what could have been.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Michael de Percy about how Menzies represents Australia’s unrealised nuclear potential.
Bob Santamaria is a key figure in the Menzies era. Despite being little known until the mid 1950s, Santamaria’s role as the driving force behind ‘the Movement’ helped to thwart communist influence in the Australian trade unions and precipitate the great Labor split. Though he became a highly visible public commentator in his later years, the man himself remains something of a mystery, having provided contradictory autobiographies and propounding eccentric political ideas. While Santamaria proudly boasted that he never voted Liberal, in Menzies’s retirement, the two Bob’s would often share a drink and a warm chat in Menzies’s Malvern home.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Gerard Henderson, author of two books on B.A. Santamaria, a central figure behind the 1950s Labor split.
Since the record-breaking run of Robert Menzies, there have been 14 leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia. Each of them has been influenced in various ways by the party’s founder, as they try to take up the essential task of upholding the principles of Australian liberalism (which indeed is a political tradition which long predates Menzies himself). In this special series of the Afternoon Light podcast, we intend to speak to each of the surviving leaders of the party about their connection to Menzies, philosophical beliefs, and time spent heading the centre-right of Australian politics.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Brendan Nelson AO, Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia between 2007-8, about his beliefs and experiences in the role.
Since the record-breaking run of Robert Menzies, there have been 14 leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia. Each of them has been influenced in various ways by the party’s founder, as they try to take up the essential task of upholding the principles of Australian liberalism (which indeed is a political tradition which long predates Menzies himself). In this special series of the Afternoon Light podcast, we intend to speak to each of the surviving leaders of the party about their connection to Menzies, philosophical beliefs, and time spent heading the centre-right of Australian politics.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Scott Morrison, Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia between 2018-2022, about his beliefs and experiences in the role.
If one were to rank Australia’s most important Prime Ministers, Joseph Lyons would have to be high on the list. Not only did he lead the nation out of the Great Depression, but he was also responsible for readying the country for World War Two, presiding over five separate re-armament programs before passing away in office in 1939. Lyons’s personal journey is fascinating, as he not only went from being a Labor Tasmanian Premier to a centre-right PM, but the reason he did so was because he had been forever scarred by his father’s decision to bet the family’s resources on the Melbourne Cup. Plunged into poverty by this act of recklessness, he held that budgets must be balanced and debts repaid as an article of deep conviction.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to David Bird, who has written two books relating to Joseph Lyons, the PM under whom Menzies deputised.
The Korean War is in many respects the war that never ended. This year marks 70 years since the signing of the Armistice Agreement which ended the three-year conflict in which 339 Australians lost their lives serving as part of a United Nations force which defended South Korea from an invasion from the Communist North. The conflict was the first clear flare up of the Cold War in the Asia-Pacific and the first to which the Menzies Government committed Australian ground troops. While the armistice served as an acknowledgement of a hard-fought stalemate in which the border between the two Koreas ended up in virtually the same place it had been at the outbreak of hostilities, the respective sides have never signed a full peace treaty, and tensions between North Korea and the West remain high to this day. In many respects the conflict is a lesson that history never ends, and that the maintenance of international peace and security is a constant work in progress.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Keith Wolahan MP, Australian Army veteran and the Member for Menzies, about the Korean War and its contemporary legacy.
Since the record-breaking run of Robert Menzies, there have been 14 leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia. Each of them has been influenced in various ways by the party’s founder, as they try to take up the essential task of upholding the principles of Australian liberalism (which indeed is a political tradition which long predates Menzies himself). In this special series of the Afternoon Light podcast, we intend to speak to each of the surviving leaders of the party about their connection to Menzies, philosophical beliefs, and time spent heading the centre-right of Australian politics.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Alexander Downer, leader of the Liberal Party 1994-5, about his political beliefs and experiences in the role.
Ebony Nilsson, ‘It Will Be Classified’ The Remarkable Story of Bill Marshall & ASIO’s Operatives in Australia
The biographies of migrants – as individuals who move through countries, across borders and continents – can be difficult to piece together. There are often gaps in their backgrounds and stories which remain mysterious, or parts of their lives which are not explicable. This same is true of the biographies of spies, though for different reasons. Writing the biography of a Russian migrant who became an intelligence officer with the fledgling Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), was thus a challenging process. But figures like Vladimir Mischenko, also known as Bill Marshall, reveal the importance of those who work behind-the-scenes, shaping Australian history from the shadows.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Ebony Nilsson, a historian of Cold War surveillance, about one of ASIO’s most intriguing agents.
Robert Menzies’s relationship with the Australian media was complex. He had an intense dislike for journalists, for a long time struggled to gain traction in Sydney, and a media narrative played a key role in his downfall as prime minister in 1941. Nevertheless, no-one who had Menzies’s longevity in politics could succeed without having a certain degree of media savvy and important connections in the press. At the end of the day, Menzies was a master of political communication and exploring his relationship with powerful media entities is highly revealing of their role in Australian democratic life.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Bridget Griffen-Foley, historian of Australian media, about Robert Menzies’s relationship with the press.
The Menzies era was in many respects the golden age of the Department of External Affairs (now Foreign Affairs). The first Australian diplomatic postings outside of the British Commonwealth had been made by Menzies’s wartime government, so when he returned to power in 1949 Australia was still forging its diplomatic network. This adolescence and growth gave great opportunities for young, ambitious and talented people to make a name for themselves, and a classic example of this is James Plimsoll. Plimsoll had a stellar career in which he became a crucial confidant of the Korean President, served as Australian Ambassador to the United States, and topped it all off by being appointed Governor of Tasmania. His story shows how Australia found its feet on the world stage.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Jeremy Hearder, veteran diplomat and biographer of James Plimsoll, about one of Australia’s most stellar foreign representatives.
Just as the Second World War produced the United Nations, the First World War brought forth its immediate predecessor the League of Nations. Generally viewed as a failure hamstrung by the fact that America never joined and unable to forestall Axis aggression, the League nevertheless gave birth to many important international operations that were subsequently taken over by the UN and continue to this day. For Australia, membership of the League was an important coming of age moment, one in which we were represented separately from Britain on the world stage for one of the first times in our history. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to James Cotton, author of The Australians at Geneva: Internationalist Diplomacy in the Interwar Years, about the UN’s ill-fated precursor.
Robert Menzies had a great dislike for both journalists and biographers. In his memoir Afternoon Light, he decried contemporary history as little more than a ‘gossip column’ which could not be trusted to get the facts right. Nevertheless, early in his second stint as prime minister he reluctantly enlisted a brilliant writer named Allan Dawes to write a biography to help win over the Australian public. While mysterious circumstances ensured that that biography was never released, its story speaks to the great impact that contemporary political biographies can have on the course of real-world events. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Chris Wallace, author of Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers, about the real-world impact of political biography.
The 1950s are often seen as a dull and stultified period in Australian history, epitomised by the growth of suburbia, the white picket fence and indeed the fact that we had the same prime minister for the entire decade. However, when you scratch the surface there were significant cultural changes happening, as well as a growing, though still somewhat tentative self-confidence in ourselves as a nation. This came to a head at the 1956 Olympics, the first ever to be held in the southern hemisphere, when all eyes were fixed on Australia for the first time. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Nick Richardson, author of 1956: The Year Australia Welcomed the World.
In the 122 years that have passed since federation, only two of our nation’s leaders have surpassed a decade serving as Prime Minister. It is notable that the second, John Howard, had a great admiration for and partly modelled his conduct on the first and still unsurpassed record holder Sir Robert Menzies. When Howard was Opposition Leader, Paul Keating would taunt him in Parliament for his connection to Menzies – but Howard not only had the last laugh at the 1996 election, but since leaving office he has spearheaded a new awareness of and appreciation for his predecessor, starting with his highly successful 2014 book The Menzies Era. It is in large part because of Howard that Menzies is now widely recognised as the man who ‘shaped modern Australia’. In this special episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to former Prime Minister John Howard, who gives his personal insights into Menzies’s leadership.
Liberalism is Australia’s oldest political tradition. Even before the advent of democracy in the Australian colonies, Australian liberals fought key political battles that secured equal rights for ex-convicts, trial by jury, religious freedom, and which prevented the establishment of a bunyip aristocracy. By the time they had won the right to democracy in 1856, virtually every politician called themselves liberal and a pervasively liberal order was imposed upon the continent. In the early 20th century this liberal epoch would be eclipsed by the First World War and the onset of the Great Depression, but Menzies was able to tap into the nation’s history and culture to recall the liberal dream under a new political banner. The Liberal Party of Australia has since been Australia’s most successful political party, and a large reason for this is that it can draw upon values deeply imprinted on the Australian psyche. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to the Institute’s Academic Coordinator Dr Zachary Gorman, who explores the founding of the Liberal Party as a key moment in the broader history of Australian liberalism.
Britain’s entry into what became the European Union was very much foreshadowed during the Menzies era, when the United Kingdom attempted to join the European Economic Community only to be vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle. Menzies was obviously highly opposed to the move to join, not only because of its economic consequences for Australia and his sentimental attachment to the British Commonwealth, but because he understood how fundamentally important national sovereignty is to the healthy functioning of a democracy. After marathon political battles, Brexit is now an accomplished fact, but Britain faces a complex task in seizing the opportunities of independence and shedding itself of the extensive regulatory remnants of Brussels’ control, particularly with the interruptions of the recent pandemic. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Daniel Hannan, one of the architects of Brexit, about the state of independent Britain.
Robert Menzies’s relationship with the United States was complex. While he respected their vital role as Australia’s ‘great and powerful friend’ and protector, and grew to appreciate their shared values, he was acutely aware that they were different to Britain and his first visit to America provoked quite hostile views. Menzies knew that with great power comes great responsibility, and he had some skepticism about whether the United States could live up to its role of global leader as the British Commonwealth receded. Nevertheless, by the time he retired in 1966 his views had warmed such that he decided to spend a twilight year lecturing at the University of Virginia. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Frank Yuan, PhD candidate at the University of Sydney, about how Menzies viewed the United States.
The 19th and 20th centuries were some of the most momentous periods of change in human history. The former saw the immense economic power of capitalism and the industrial revolution create levels of unheard-of wealth. The latter saw a battle over how to spread that wealth, with opposing models of the communist command economy facing off against a liberal capitalism tempered by the rise of the welfare state. For Robert Menzies the state had an important ameliorative role to play in society, but he knew that all prosperity and innovation were ultimately driven by individual initiative and enterprise. While this model seemed to have triumphed by the end of the 20th century, it faces new and significant challenges, and that is why it is worth looking back on the big picture of humanity’s recent past. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor Richard Pomfret about the central themes of his book, The Age of Equality: The twentieth century in economic perspective.
In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This sixth episode features David Furse Robert’s paper looking at ‘Percy Spender: the Colombo Plan, the ANZUS Treaty and the Japanese Peace Treaty’ and Lyndon Megarrity’s paper exploring ‘International Students before and after Colombo’ (begins at 18:30).
In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This fifth episode features William Stoltz’s paper on ‘The Founding of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service’ and David Lee’s paper looking at ‘Economic Management During the Korean War’ (begins at 18:30).
In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This fourth episode features Lucas McLennan’s paper examining ‘Menzies and the "Movement": Two pillars of Australian anti-communism’ and Lorraine Finlay’s paper exploring 'What liberty for the enemies of liberty? Reflections on Menzies and the attempts to ban the Australian Communist Party’ (begins at 17:30).
In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This third episode features Tom Switzer’s paper on ‘Liberalism Applied? Policy shifts in the transition from Chifley to Menzies’, Andrew Blyth’s paper on ‘Early Think Tanks and their impact on the Menzies Government’ (begins at 20:00), and Christopher Beer’s paper ‘The Forgotten People by the Sea? Liberalism, affluence and the Central Coast of New South Wales during the 1950s’ (begins at 41:30).
In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This second episode features Troy Bramston’s paper on ‘Robert Menzies: The Art of Power’ and Charles Richardson’s paper on ‘Menzies, Evatt and Constitutional Government’ (begins at 19:15).
In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This first episode features the keynote address delivered by the Honourable George Brandis KC, Nicolle Flint’s paper on ‘Menzies’s Miracle? The Foundation of the Liberal Party of Australia’ (begins at 22:30), and Anne Henderson’s on ‘Menzies and the Banks’ (begins at 44:30).
Australia is far from the only country that started out as a settler colony built on the dispossession of Indigenous peoples, nor is it alone in having a complex path in coming to terms with the resulting legacies. Each story has its own nuances, similarities and contrasts, that can help reveal what we have gotten right and what we have gotten wrong. One obvious parallel is the United States, which experienced its own frontier wars but which also has a distinct history of making and ultimately breaking treaties signed with Native American tribes. One surprising American reformer on Indigenous issues was President Richard Nixon, whom Menzies had a complex relationship with, and in this podcast we unpack what was happening in America roughly contemporaneously with the Menzies era. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor Dean Kotlowski, who is visiting Australia to construct a comparative history of American and Australian Indigenous Policy.
Long time Country Party Leader Earle Page was possibly the most important side character in Australian political history. He engineered the fall of Billy Hughes, won a coalition on generous terms that has shaped the centre-right of politics ever since, and served as second in command for the aptly named Bruce-Page Government and also for much of the Lyons Ministry. But he was also a man of vision, holding a profound belief in developmentalism, who was always on the lookout for the ‘psychological moment’ when political circumstances would suit putting his plans into action. He did not always judge such moments correctly, and his infamous attack on Menzies in 1939 spelled the end of his hold on the Country Party leadership. Nevertheless, the two men had a frosty reconciliation, and Page became an important reforming Health Minister in the Menzies Government before losing his seat and shortly afterwards his life at the nail-biting 1961 election. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Stephen Wilks from the ANU’s National Centre of Biography, who is the author of the first full length examination of Earle Page’s remarkable life and career.
One of the main reasons that the Robert Menzies Institute has been set up at the University of Melbourne, beyond the fact that Menzies was both a student and chancellor of the institution, is that he bequeathed the university his personal library of over 4000 books. Housed in the Leigh Scott Room in the Baillieu Library, the collection is a cultural artefact that reveals insights into who Menzies knew, what he read, and what engaged his mind. A remarkable time capsule of twentieth century Australia, it is a great resource for historians and its treasures serve as the basis for the RMI’s museum exhibition housed in the Old Quad. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer explores the collection with William Cook, our Curatorial Assistant who has spent over a year cataloguing Menzies’s books.
John Curtin and Robert Menzies remain arguably the most revered prime ministers on their respective sides of Australian politics. The two men shared a mutual respect for one another, and a sense of cordiality that crossed party lines, even if that was severely tested by Eddie Ward’s ‘Brisbane Line’ fabrication. As two prime ministers who shared the burden of leading the nation through its greatest test, Curtin has tended to receive more credit for Australia’s success in World War Two, but for that effort he would pay the ultimate price. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Associate Professor David Lee from UNSW Canberra, who is the author of a new biographical monograph on Labor icon John Curtin.
Australia’s relationship with India has been slow to prosper. For all our cultural ties and mutual love of cricket, until recently the shared legacy of Empire tended to stunt rather than facilitate the two nations coming to understand each other. These issues were epitomised by the relationship between Menzies and Nehru, two record-setting leaders who could bond over a love of parliamentary democracy, but who otherwise viewed the world through very different eyes. With the advent of the Quad, and the recent blossoming of a new-found strategic alignment, it is worth looking back on just how far we have come. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Meg Gurry about the rocky road of the Australia-India relationship.
It is little remembered that in the race to produce the world’s first nuclear weapon, Britain took an early lead before changing tact to focus on assisting America’s efforts. In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the United States shut off their wartime ally from access to the technology they had helped to create, and the United Kingdom was forced to lean on the Commonwealth to become a nuclear power. After being rebuffed by Canada, Britain settled on Australia as the site for a large number of tests that would have devastating consequences for Indigenous Australians and the environment, which were little explored by a compliant government, opposition and media captivated by the immediate imperatives of the Cold War. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Elizabeth Tynan, author of several books exploring Australia’s nuclear past and its ongoing legacy.
William Cooper was a pioneering Indigenous activist, notable for his famous petition to King George VI for an Aboriginal representative in the Australian parliament, his call for a day of mourning after 150 years of colonisation, the walk-off of the Yorta Yorta people from Cummeragunja reserve in 1939, and his opposition to the establishment of an Aboriginal regiment in the Second World War. In his later years Cooper wrote several letters lobbying for change from Prime Minister Robert Menzies, who was then preoccupied in directing Australia’s war-effort. While Cooper achieved only limited cut-through in his lifetime, he laid the foundation for many to follow in his footsteps. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer discusses William Cooper with the author of An Aboriginal Life Story Professor Bain Attwood.
Australia’s relationship with China has always been fraught with both difficulty and opportunity. It was Menzies who established Australia’s first diplomatic mission to China during World War Two, and he had a lot of sympathy for the beleaguered ally that was the Chinese Nationalist Government. It was subsequently quite disheartening to see them defeated in the Chinese Civil War, but the Menzies Government’s attitude towards recognising the victorious Communist regime was far more nuanced than is generally assumed and he was actively conciliatory over the Taiwan Straight Crisis. Such nuance, combined with caution, is a necessary part of any dealings with China, as our present difficulties serve as just the latest chapter in a complex story. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor James Curran about his new book Australia’s China Odyssey: From Euphoria to Fear.
One of the defining features of the Menzies era was a long economic boom where, apart from the occasional short hiccup, growth remained high while inflation and unemployment remained low. The eternal debate is to what extent did the Menzies Government facilitate this prosperity? While Menzies maintained a significant role for the state and the levers of Keynesian economic control that were already in place, there is no doubt that his anti-socialist vision contrasted with his predecessor who not only tried to nationalise the banks but also tried to expand the Commonwealth’s constitutional powers to organise marketing, dictate industrial employment, and even to control rents and prices. In this context, and combined with Menzies’s rapid push to abandon wartime controls and rationing, and also to open the door to foreign investment, there is strong case to be made that his government gave the economy the freedom to flourish, at least by a comparative standard. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor of Economics Jonathan Pincus, who picks apart the details of Menzies’s economic miracle.
During the month of October, the Robert Menzies Institute has been very proud to host former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Lord Jonathan Sumption on a tour of Australia in which he has captivated audiences with a number of prominent speaking engagements, most notably the RMI Oration and Gala. Sumption’s views on the pivotal importance of the rule of law and the precarious future of modern democracy closely echo concerns expressed by Sir Robert Menzies, who himself was very close to becoming a Justice of the High Court of Australia. In this week’s very special episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Lord Sumption about a number of vital issues, including responses to the Covid pandemic, Brexit, and the manner in which the lessons of history can help inform modern decision makers.
Robert Menzies holds the record as Australia's longest serving prime minister, but he is certainly not Australia's longest serving ‘democratically’ elected political leader. That record is held by Thomas Playford, who was Premier of South Australia for an astonishing period from 1938 until 1965. This period corresponded with both of Menzies’s stints as prime minister, and the Federal leader had a complicated relationship with the State’s unconventional non-Labor government. Playford was always determined to extract whatever he could out of the Commonwealth, and Menzies was often forced to oblige. South Australia serves as a fascinating case study into how Australian political parties remain highly federalised, with each division having its own unique story and distinctive characteristics. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Clement Macintyre about South Australia’s unique political history and how it relates to the Menzies era.
One of the more obscure achievements of the Menzies Government was establishing Mawson Station, Australia’s first permanent base on the once uninhabited southern continent. This difficult endeavour was done partly in the name of science, but also to secure Australia’s claim to 42% of the territory which had its origins in the ‘historic age’ of exploration. This claim remains disputed, and the ins and outs of how various countries have tried to take possession of the barren and inhospitable, but potentially mineral-rich, wasteland is a fascinating story, involving everything from centuries-old papal bulls to the machinations of the Cold War. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor Christy Collis about the complicated history of claims of Antarctic possession.
The Colombo Plan is one of Australia’s most successful and best remembered foreign policy initiatives. It is commonly associated with an influx of visiting students from our region who helped to breakdown the prejudices of white Australia and lay the groundwork for education to become one of our greatest exports. However, the Colombo Plan was bigger than Australia and it was broader than education. It was an ambitious attempt to use soft power to halt the spread of communism and to bring stability and prosperity to a number of developing nations. Its legacy is multifaceted and offers many positive examples that we can learn from today. In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Professor David Lowe, chair in contemporary history at Deakin University, who is currently writing a new book exploring the Colombo Plan.
The dismantling of the White Australia Policy was a long process, but its tentative beginning may be dated to the initial wave of post-war migration which served to expand the definition of ‘Australian’ beyond descendants of the British Isles. An early and large proportion of these migrants were displaced persons from Eastern Europe who did not want to return to homes that had been absorbed into the Soviet sphere. Many had to lie about their identity in order to avoid forced repatriation, and their stories are personal, intriguing, and multi-faceted. Collectively they helped to transform their adoptive country, playing an important role in informing contemporary fears of communism which were a defining aspect of the Menzies era. This special episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast is a recording of a talk delivered by Hansen Professor in History Mark Edele on ‘Early Cold War Migration and its Impact on Australia’, presented at the University of Melbourne on 31 August 2022.
As a tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II, the Robert Menzies Institute is re-releasing this episode of Afternoon Light discussing the 1954 Royal Tour, originally published in February:
In 1954 Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. The Royal Tour was a fascinating cultural phenomenon, mesmerising the entire nation for over a month. It is estimated that three-quarters of Australia’s population came out to see their new Queen, escorted by her husband Prince Phillip. In many respects it was a coming-of-age moment for Australia, where we finally achieved the recognition that we felt we both needed and deserved. For Robert Menzies as Prime Minister it was easily one of his proudest moments.
Seventy years ago the Menzies Government made the unlikely purchase of an original 1297 copy of Magna Carta. Transported to Australia with the greatest degree of care and attention, it has (barring the occasional restoration) sat in pride of place in Parliament House ever since. The question this podcast seeks to unpack is why? - what does a 13th century document principally designed to meet the interests of self-interested aristocrats have to do with a modern democracy based on universal suffrage and the legal equality of individuals? The answer, as it turns out, is everything; for the Charter captured the imagination of proceeding generations who fought and won parliamentary democracy by appealing to a powerful symbol, precedent and semi-mythologised history. The lesson to be drawn is the centrality of culture and continuity in securing and protecting freedom.
John Gorton attained the Prime Ministership in the unlikeliest of ways. Propelled into the media spotlight for lancing the boil of the VIP Aircraft Affair, he was able to use television and personal popularity to leap-frog many senior colleagues into the leadership after Harold Holt’s disappearance. Once he had attained the reins of office, Gorton was determined to do things ‘his way’, centralising power in the hands of the Commonwealth and riding roughshod over a string of conservative orthodoxies. That he ultimately came unstuck as his leadership skills could not match his grand ambition only serves to add interest to the story of one of Australia’s most unique politicians.
It is no secret that Australia currently faces a troubled geopolitical environment, indeed one of the most difficult that we have faced in recent memory. In these novel circumstances it is worthwhile looking back on past periods of disturbance to draw lessons for the present. While people tend to be quick to jump to comparisons to the 1930s and its catastrophic descent towards global conflict, there are significant and perhaps more profitable parallels to be drawn between the 1950s and now, particularly when it comes to a shake-up in global trade and the international economic order.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Jeff Wilson from the Australian Industry Group about how the Menzies era can help us not just to safely navigate the present but to seize its important opportunities.
In the ‘Forgotten People’ broadcast Menzies presaged JFK by suggesting that ‘The great question is, "How can I qualify my son to help society?" Not, as we have so frequently thought, "How can I qualify society to help my son?"’. Following this, a close examination of Menzies’s political speeches demonstrates that he talked about the individual’s duties and obligations almost as much as he talked about their freedom and their liberty. In this vein, Menzies fitted into a long tradition of civic republicanism which stretched back to Ancient Rome and included such figures as Oliver Cromwell. These republicans were concerned about tyranny and domination, but they equally saw the individual as inseparable from and having deep responsibilities to the community.
The issue of State Aid for independent schools was once one of the most divisive in Australian politics. When the advent of ‘free, compulsory, and secular’ education in the 19th century spelled the end of government support for denominational schools, Australia’s Catholic community resolved to maintain their own schools as a matter of identity, culture, and pride. Meanwhile, informed in part by sectarianism and prejudice, the Protestant majority became equally determined that no government money should go into assisting these schools, leaving what was a relatively impoverished section of Australian society to fend for themselves all while paying taxes for the public system. It was Robert Menzies, a Presbyterian with a fierce distaste for religious bigotry, who cut through this gordian knot of education policy and in doing so helped to bring the nation together.
The idea of an ‘Australian citizen’ is a concept that is in a perpetual state of development. At the time of federation, Australians considered themselves to be British subjects and the only time ‘citizenship’ is mentioned in our Constitution is to bar citizens of a foreign power from siting in Parliament. Without a clear definition, the concept has gradually evolved through discourse and through practice, and a central figure in that evolution was Robert Menzies. For Menzies, citizenship was an organic idea, wrapped up in the acceptance of duty and the moral independence of the individual, which allowed them to freely and informedly exercise their vote come election time. It was also tied to the prospect of home ownership, which Menzies did so much to expand, and a nation of people who had a stake in their country and in its future.
While Australia’s hosting of British nuclear tests in the 1950s is a well-known and controversial policy of the Menzies Government, the fact that Australia sought its own ‘bomb’ remains relatively obscure. That our nation’s leaders, on both sides of politics, desired nuclear weapons should not surprise us. Australia had stared down the existential threat of invasion during World War Two, and on the same premise that informed ‘populate or perish’ and our push for an ongoing alliance with the United States, governments were willing to do whatever it took to safeguard national security. As new security fears and the challenges of climate change are breathing new life into the debate over a potential nuclear future, it is the perfect time to shine a light on Australia's nuclear past.
Often described as one of Australia’s weakest Prime Ministers, Billy McMahon nevertheless makes for a fascinating biographical subject. A notorious leaker who made far more enemies than friends, McMahon’s climb to the top position of Australian political leadership is one of the most surprising and remarkable achievements in Australian politics. For all of his flaws, McMahon was a man of great perseverance, work-ethic, and drive, and on a number of policy positions, particularly that of free trade, he was actually more perceptive and forward thinking than his colleagues. While McMahon is best remembered for losing 1972 election, even that epoch defining result was a far closer fight than the popular memory would allow.
At the heart of Robert Menzies’s appeal to the ‘Forgotten People’ was the family, the essential basis of a healthy society. Menzies described the instinct to be with one’s family as ‘the great instinct of civilised man’. This was no mere rhetoric, Menzies was at heart a family man and cherished every moment that he got to spend with his close relatives. They in turn remember him fondly, and can provide insights into the real man that would otherwise remain forever hidden.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Tom Frame about Menzies’s Liberal deputy and immediate successor Harold Holt.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Western Sydney University Lecturer Dr Bridget Brooklyn about the intricacies of the pivotal 1954 election.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Peter Drysdale AO, architect of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, about his personal reflections on how the Australia-Japan relationship has developed over the years.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to barrister and public commentator Gray Connolly about the history of Australian conservatism.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer about his personal recollections of Robert Menzies and his views on contemporary politics, with a particular emphasis on the troubled geopolitical landscape.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to best-selling biographer Troy Bramston about the comparisons to be made between Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke, the longest serving prime ministers for each side of Australian politics.
When it comes to political longevity, Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke are record-breakers who are frequently held up as leadership models for successors to emulate. But despite their competing political philosophies, Menzies and Hawke have far more in common than simply winning elections. Both were born in remote townships on either side of the Victoria-South Australian border, both came from families containing active politicians and had fathers who served as religious ministers, both were filled with talent, ambition and drive from an early age, and both were able to adapt and learn over their careers. In an Australia that seems to be yearning for enduring and successful leadership, there are many lessons to be learned from their stories, and they come out all the clearer through a discussion of Plutarch-style ‘parallel lives’.
Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian. He has interviewed politicians, presidents and prime ministers from multiple countries along with writers, actors, directors, producers and several pop-culture icons. He is an award-winning and best-selling author or editor of 11 books, including Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny, Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader and Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics. He also co-authored The Truth of the Palace Letters and The Dismissal with Paul Kelly.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to our Visiting Fellow Dr William Stoltz about the history of the Australia Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), which recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of its foundation under the Menzies Government.
You can read Dr Stoltz’s opinion piece on the creation of ASIS here.
In this week's episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Darius von Güttner, a historian of Eastern Central Europe from the University of Melbourne, about the ‘deep history’ that underpins the current conflict in the Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s flagrant invasion of the Ukraine has famously been justified on the pretext of NATO expansionism, but it is also based on a historical fiction which seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the sovereign nation which is currently under attack. Putin has claimed that Ukraine ‘never had a tradition of genuine statehood’, deliberately trying to erase a national story that stretches back over one thousand years. Such is often the case with global conflicts; they almost invariably have historical underpinnings and they serve to demonstrate that historical memory is a contested domain with real world consequences. This issue is closely related to the purpose of the Robert Menzies Institute, which is part of a network of prime ministerial libraries dedicated to keeping alive Australia’s national story, a tale of peaceful liberal democracy that we hope will long continue.
Dr Darius von Güttner is a Principal Research Fellow with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is a historian of East Central Europe with broad interest in cultural aspects of the transmission of ideas across time and space. He is interested in global history and pursues interdisciplinary research and teaching subjects which examine history from a global perspective. Darius is the General Editor of Brepols publishing’s book series on “East Central Europe”. His publications cover diverse aspects of history from the Middle Ages to early modern and the modern eras.
In this week’s episode of Afternoon Light, , Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer discusses the dangers posed by an increasingly assertive China and the outbreak of conflict in Eastern Europe with Australian Senator James Paterson.
Australia’s degenerating relationship with China has dominated headlines for several years. As Australia seeks to uphold sovereignty and a rules based international order, we are increasingly exposed to economic coercion, cyber-attacks, and even acts of espionage and foreign interference. Dealing with these threats as a liberal democracy involves balancing security and freedom, and also working with like minded nations to ensure a coordinated and firm response. The new AUKUS agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States builds on Menzies’s ANZUS Treaty, and represents the most significant change to Australia’s strategic arrangements in decades.
James Paterson is a Liberal Senator for Victoria. First elected in March 2016 at age 28, he is the youngest Liberal ever elected to the Senate. Senator Paterson is the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, the deputy chair of the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, and the former chair of the Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services and the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee. Senator Paterson is also the Australian co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Museums, Libraries and Galleries; co-patron of Liberal Friends of Israel; and deputy chair of the Modest Members Society – a group of Coalition MPs committed to championing free markets and economic freedom.
The Robert Menzies Institute recently hosted renowned military and diplomatic historian Peter Edwards for a talk entitled ‘From Korea to Vietnam: Menzies’s Cold War military commitments’. Prior to the event, Peter sat down with the Institute’s CEO Georgina Downer to talk through the complex issues involved in the defence of Australia during the Menzies era.
It is natural and just that Australians should be drawn towards remembering and commemorating the Vietnam War, in which 521 Australian combat personnel lost their lives, as a defining moment in our history. However, this conflict has tended to overshadow the otherwise successful implementation of strategies of ‘graduated response’ and ‘forward defence’ which characterised defence policy during the Menzies era. The aim was to use targeted and small troop commitments to help snuff out conflict before it could reach Australia, assisting friendly governments resist insurgencies so that the ‘dominoes’ of the Asia-Pacific would not fall to international communism, whilst simultaneously keeping Australia’s ‘great and powerful friends’ engaged in the region. During the Malayan Emergency and the Indonesian Confrontation, carefully integrated military and diplomatic actions helped achieve outcomes that were favourable for Australia, and with the nation once again facing a troubled international landscape, there are crucial lessons to be drawn for the present.
Peter Edwards AM is a writer, historian and biographer who has published extensively on Australian and international history and politics. He is the official historian and general editor of the nine-volume Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-75, including authoring volumes on strategy and diplomacy, Crises and Commitments (1992) and A Nation at War (1997). Peter won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and has been affiliated with numerous Australian and international universities, as well as receiving official appointments to work for organisations including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian War Memorial. Peter is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), a Fellow of the Australian Institute for International Affairs, and a former Trustee of Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. A former editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, Peter is a longstanding member of the Research Committee of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and of historical advisory committees in the Department of Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In this week's episode of Afternoon Light, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Peter Kurti about his recent report, ‘Raging against the past: guilt, justice, and the postcolonial reformation’.
A response to the recent trend of tearing down or vandalising statues of historical figures, Peter’s report deals with an issue which poses important questions related to historical memory and the nature of a progressive society.
Peter Kurti is the Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture at Charles Sturt University.
On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Thomas Wilkins about the evolving nature of the Australia-Japan relationship.
Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in International Security at the University of Sydney and Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Distinguished Professor Ian McAllister about the evolution of Australian elections since the Menzies era.
Australian elections have long been characterised by the rather uncommon tradition of compulsory voting, but outside of this and other mainstays like a pencil and paper, much of the way elections are now conducted would have been unrecognisable in Menzies’s day. While Menzies fought for the ‘Forgotten People’, the middle class, the days of traditional class-based voting are largely gone – with asset holdings being more important than job classifications in determining who people vote for. The electorate now contains far fewer ‘rusted on’ voters, with people more likely to change who they vote for from election to election, or to vote for a different party in the Senate. These trends are partly a long-term product of the Menzies Government, with rising prosperity and high levels of tertiary education eroding class barriers. While Menzies was a strong leader who formed a lasting political party, leaders now campaign increasingly as presidents and parties are now as much brands as they are a collection of like-minded members.
Ian McAllister is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at The Australian National University, and from 1997 until 2004 was Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU. He has previously held chairs at the University of New South Wales and the University of Manchester and has held other academic appointments at The Queen's University of Belfast and the University of Strathclyde. He was President of the British Politics Group 2001-2002, edited the Australian Journal of Political Science from 2004 to 2010, and was chair of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project from 2003 to 2008.
On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Paul Morrissey, President of Campion College about a liberal education.
Robert Menzies was a firm believer in the value of a broad liberal education. The Menzies Government reinvigorated and greatly expanded Australia’s university system through both the implementation of the Murray Report into Higher Education and the introduction of merit-based Commonwealth Scholarships, but Menzies insisted that this ground-breaking investment was not based on the mere utilitarianism of boosting the economy by training people for jobs. He wanted universities to create well rounded citizens who would serve and uphold Australia’s democracy, and he wanted to encourage a search for truth that viewed life’s purpose as something greater than felicific calculus.
This fundamental question, ‘what is the purpose of a university education?’, remains highly relevant, particularly in an era where universities increasingly function as businesses and their budgets have been devastated by shrinking international student numbers.
Paul is the President of Campion College where he also lectures in theology. Paul became president of Campion in 2015 after a career teaching theology and religious studies at university and high school. After completing his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Lateran University in Rome and his Doctorate at the Catholic Institute in Sydney, Paul taught systematic and moral theology at the University of Notre Dame for eight years. He has published numerous papers in New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Logos and Solidarity.
On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast of the Robert Menzies Institute, CEO Georgina Downer talks to co-curators of the RMI’s permanent exhibition David Kemp and Nick Cater.
David and Nick explain that their curatorial purpose was to create an image of Menzies that Menzies himself would recognise, as opposed to the various projections which detractors and even supporters have attached to Menzies over the years. The exhibition covers eight key themes, including Menzies as a Liberal, Political Architect, Leader, Parliamentarian, Family Man, Nation Builder, Patriot, and his Legacy. Taken together they form a complete, nuanced and quite remarkable picture of Australia’s longest serving prime minister, which is brought to life by a host of unique and evocative artefacts. These are drawn heavily from the Menzies Collection, Menzies’s personal library of some 4000 books which he bequeathed to the University of Melbourne and which capture the breadth of his reading and thought, as well as other items brought in from public and personal collections around Australia.
The Hon. Dr David Kemp AC is a former Federal Member and Minister in the Howard Government. Before entering Parliament he was Professor of Politics at Monash University, and after leaving Parliament Professor and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He is the former Chairman of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and of the Australian Heritage Council. He has published books on voting behaviour and political analysis, and is particularly known for his ground-breaking series on Australian Liberalism published by Melbourne University Press.
Nick Cateris the Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre. Since arriving in Australia from Britain in 1988, Nick Cater has risen to become one of the nation's leading political commentators. His CV includes stints as deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney, editor of The Weekend Australian, and Hong Kong correspondent for News Corp. He remains a weekly columnist at The Australian and regularly on Sky News. His affection for his adopted country was explained in his acclaimed, bestselling book The Lucky Culture (2013). Under his stewardship since 2015, the MRC has grown steadily in output, size, subscriber base, and prominence.
This week’s episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast features a recording of the Robert Menzies Institute’s O-week event in February with University of Melbourne’s Professor Joy Damousi speaking on the intricacies and impact of the WWI conscription debate.
Joy is Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, and an expert on the sociological impact of war.
On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Space Industry Association of Australia CEO James Brown about the Australian space industry.
When Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, it was an Australian tracking station that relayed the pictures to the world. This remarkable fact was the product of an agreement signed by Robert Menzies in February 1960, which saw Australia become an essential partner to the successful American effort to win the space race.
Australia was important because of our unique geographical location, but also because we were leading experts in the field of ‘Radiophysics’ which had evolved out of experiments with radar during the Second World War. When Menzies invested vast government funds in the construction of the famous Parkes radio-telescope, matching generous funding from American philanthropists, it was to keep Australia’s place at the cutting-edge of scientific research. Australia was arguably just the fourth country to ever launch its own satellite into orbit in 1967, and with the establishment of an Australian Space Agency in 2018 the Australian space industry looks set to take-off once again.
James Brown is the CEO of the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA), Australia’s peak body for the space economy. A national security and public policy expert, James has previously held research appointments at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, United States Studies Centre, and the University of Sydney. He is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the United States Studies Centre, Chairman of the charity Veteran Sports Australia, and a strategic adviser to the University of Technology Sydney. Between 2017 and 2019 James led the rebuilding and modernisation of Australia’s largest veteran’s organisation, the RSL, as its youngest ever elected President. He is a former Army officer with service in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Solomon Islands.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Keith Mason QC AC to discuss the Egon Kisch and Novak Djokovic cases.
Australia has a long history of trying to keep out people and viewpoints deemed ‘undesirable’. The recent saga with Novak Djokovic is just the latest in a series of attempts by Australian Governments to exclude high profile figures that stretch back into the early decades of the 20th century, and it is far from the only one to end in farce. Robert Menzies had his own experience of getting egg on his face endeavouring to block the entry of Egon Kisch when he was a Minister in the Lyons Government.
Kisch was a Czech Jew who came to Australia in 1934 to speak out against fascism. He was also a communist, and the Australian Government wanted to keep him out for fear that he would preach a Marxist gospel. The task of achieving this outcome fell to Robert Menzies, who had only recently entered the Federal Parliament but who nevertheless had been elevated to Attorney General because of his legal prowess. That prowess would be poorly displayed, as the Government bungled its repeated attempts to block then deport Kisch, succeeding only in giving him a higher profile.
Keith Mason AC QC is a former President of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, the highest civil court in the State of New South Wales. He has served as Chairman of the New South Wales Electoral Commission, a visiting professorial fellow at the University of New South Wales, and the chancellor of the Anglican diocese of Armidale. He has published widely on legal topics including judicial method, legal taxonomy, the law of restitution, and the interface of law, morality and religion.
This week on the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Sybil Nolan about the Menzies Collection.
In 1976 Sir Robert Menzies bequeathed his library and archive of approximately 4000 items to the University of Melbourne. The collection is a unique historical and cultural artefact, showcasing the breadth of Menzies’s intellectual influences and acting as a sociological time capsule of 20th century Australia. For historians, the collection is a treasure trove of unique items, each having the potential to unlock fascinating secrets about their previous owner.
Sybil Nolan is a historian who has had the opportunity to spend some time with the collection, first while researching her PhD in 2005 and later in 2013 as part of a grant. During the latter exploration she chanced across Menzies’s copy of The Discovery of India, gifted to him by the author Jawaharlal Nehru on a visit to New Delhi in December of 1950, an item which inspired her to write an entire book chapter. Its pages; some read, some noticeably untouched, evoke Menzies’s own struggle to come to grips with a post-colonial world in which the Empire he was raised to feel a part of was no more.
Sybil Nolan is a Senior Lecturer in publishing and communications at the University of Melbourne, and Publisher at Grattan Street Press, the University's teaching press. She researches in publishing, print culture and Australian political and media history. Sybil worked in book publishing for more than 10 years, including as commissioning editor at Melbourne University Publishing from 2003 to 2007, and before that spent 15 years working in daily journalism on newspapers including the Age.
This week on the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Associate Professor William Sanders about Indigenous policy under the Menzies Government.
When Robert Menzies was Prime Minister Indigenous policy was exclusively a matter for State Governments as set out in the Australian Constitution. This would change after the 1967 referendum, which Menzies was instrumental in planning, but until then the primary area in which the Federal Government could legislate, manage, and reform Indigenous policy was in the administration of Commonwealth Territories and particularly the Northern Territory. So it was under the direction of Paul Hasluck, appointed Minister for Territories in 1951, that a significant program of reform was carried out.
Hasluck was a remarkable man who was highly dedicated to this area of policy making. He was a member of the Australian Aborigines Amelioration Association, and wrote articles for the West Australian which were scathing in their criticism of how Indigenous Australians were being treated. He completed a Masters thesis on Indigenous Affairs at the University of Western Australia. Seizing the opportunities provided by his portfolio, he did what he could to advance the legal and economic equality of Indigenous Australians compared to their white counterparts. Nevertheless, his views were shaped by the assimilationist mindset of the era, and consequently his reforming legacy has become controversial.
Joining us to discuss these issues is William Sanders, an Honorary Associate Professor with the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University. Will joined CAEPR as a Research Fellow in 1993 and was appointed as Fellow in 1999 and Senior Fellow in 2007. His undergraduate training was in government, public administration, and political science, and his PhD was on the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the social security system. Will's research interests cover the political and social aspects of Indigenous policy, as well as the economic. He regularly works on Indigenous people's participation in elections, on housing and social security policy issues, and on federal and intergovernmental aspects of Indigenous affairs policy.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to the Reserve Bank’s Official Historian, Selwyn Cornish, about the history of central banking in Australia.
In 1960 the Menzies Government established the Reserve Bank of Australia, separating central banking from where it had evolved within the government-owned Commonwealth Bank. The first Governor of the Reserve Bank, Herbert ‘Nugget’ Coombs, said that a central bank ‘must grow like a living organism’, and so it is that over the years the RBA has established itself as a cornerstone of the Australian economy and as an institution which is immensely important to our system of government. Allegedly cut-off from political pressuring, it has the power and the responsibility to safeguard the nation’s prosperity.
But how did we get here? How did an institution established almost 60 years after Federation come to be so essential to the functioning of the Commonwealth? How had central banking evolved before the establishment of the RBA and why was Robert Menzies so keen to ensure that it was not connected with the Commonwealth Bank?
Selwyn Cornish is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Research School of Economics at the Australian National University, and the Reserve Bank’s Official Historian. He is an Associate Editor of the forthcoming Biographical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Economists, and is writing the History of the Reserve Bank of Australia 1975–2000. His major research fields embrace the development and application of macroeconomics in the 20th century, and biographical studies of economists. In 2004 he was appointed a Member of The Order of Australia for services to secondary education in the ACT.
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Emeritus Professor Martyn Lyons about letters written to Robert Menzies.
During his time as Prime Minister, Robert Menzies received thousands of letters from ordinary Australians. Many wrote asking for help, others wrote to congratulate him on various achievements, and still others wrote angrily to scold him for some misdeed like daring to increase the salaries of MPs. These letters can provide a unique social history which offers a marvellous insight into the everyday concerns of Australians of the Menzies era, if only someone took the time to read them.
Martyn Lyons did take the time, and the fruit of his painstaking efforts is the book Dear Prime Minister: Letters to Robert Menzies, 1949–1966. This ‘history from below’ offers an important perspective that is often overlooked by more conventional histories. It reveals the lived experience of an era that is so often stereotyped or crystalized by hindsight, highlighting anxieties, prejudices, and anguish that might otherwise have been lost to history.
Martyn Lyons is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, an institution he has been associated with since 1977. He received a PhD from the University of Oxford, and has authored numerous books including The Typewriter Century: A Cultural History of Writing Practices and The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c. 1860-1920. He was awarded the Centenary medal in 2003 for services to the Humanities in the study of History and is a former president of the Australian Historical Association.
In this first episode of the second season of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Jane Connors about the 1954 Royal Tour.
In 1954 Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. The Royal Tour was a fascinating cultural phenomenon, mesmerising the entire nation for over a month. It is estimated that three-quarters of Australia’s population came out to see their new Queen, escorted by her husband Prince Phillip. In many respects it was a coming-of-age moment for Australia, where we finally achieved the recognition that we felt we both needed and deserved. For Robert Menzies as Prime Minister it was easily one of his proudest moments.
It is now difficult for us to imagine the emotional pull that the tour had over ordinary Australians. The moment was a unique snapshot in our history, revealing much about us as a people and our place in the world. Analysing it in retrospect helps to shed an important light on the trajectory of Australia’s story, how much we have changed in our outlook and identity, and yet this common thread of constitutional monarchy and respect for Her Majesty which retains some of its lustre 70 years down the track.
Jane Connors is an ABC veteran of over 30 years and is an editorial advisor with the ABC. She has a PhD in Australian History and is the author of Royal Visits to Australia. She is a member of several advisory bodies including the Centre for Media History.
In this sixth and final episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Scott Prasser on ‘The Learning Leader’ and Nick Cater on ‘Forgotten People to Quiet Australians’.
Dr Scott Prasser gives a detailed analysis of the qualities which underpinned Menzies’s leadership, drawing on his own expertise in public policy and the workings of government.
Prasseris an expert on public policy and the author of Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia. He has worked in Federal and State governments in senior research and policy roles and was the inaugural Executive Director of the Public Policy Institute at the Australian Catholic University. He is the editor of the Australian Biographical Monographs series produced by Connor Court Publishing, and he wrote the monograph for Menzies titled Man or Myth (2020). In 1995 he co-edited a book of papers on Menzies titled The Menzies Era: A Reappraisal of Government, Politics and Policy.
Nick Cater breaks down Menzies’s famous forgotten people broadcasts, arguing that they laid down a clear political vision which would underpin the values and governance of the Menzies era.
Cater is the Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre. Since arriving in Australia from Britain in 1988, Nick Cater has risen to become one of the nation's leading political commentators. His CV includes stints as deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney, editor of The Weekend Australian, and Hong Kong correspondent for News Corp. He remains a weekly columnist at The Australian and regularly on Sky News. His affection for his adopted country was explained in his acclaimed, bestselling book The Lucky Culture (2013). Under his stewardship since 2015, the MRC has grown steadily in output, size, subscriber base, and prominence.
In this fifth episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Anne Henderson on ‘Preparation for War, the Trade Union Movement and Appeasement’ and Frank Bongiorno on ‘Curtin and Menzies’.
Anne Henderson AM takes aim at writers who have criticised Menzies for being an ‘appeaser’ in the face of the rising threat of fascism in the late 1930s, contextualising his views so as to defeat historical anachronisms.
Henderson is the Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute. She is a prolific and respected author, having published books on Enid Lyons, Joseph Lyons, Mary Mackillop, Patrick Glynn and more. In 2014 she published Menzies at War, a detailed account of Menzies’s years in the political wilderness between his two stints as prime minister, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for History.
Professor Frank Bongiorno AM looks at the relationship between Menzies and fellow wartime Prime Minister John Curtin, demonstrating Menzies’s ability to forge friendships across the political divide and highlighting how both men were the products of an Australian culture that encouraged a surprisingly high level of learning even among the working class.
Bongiornois the Head of the School of History at the Australian National University. He is an Australian political, labour, and cultural historian, with a particular interest in the history of the Australian Labor Party, on which he has published widely. His books include The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia (2015), The People's Party: Victorian Labor and the Radical Tradition 1875-1914 (1996), and The Sex Lives of Australians: A History (2012). He was co-editor of Elections Matter: Ten Federal Elections that Shaped Australia (2018).
In this fourth episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Dr David Furse-Roberts on ‘A Simple Presbyterian in Politics: Robert Menzies, Liberalism and Anti-Sectarianism’.
Dr David Furse-Roberts examines how Menzies’s profound but somewhat enigmatic religious beliefs shaped his political views, and also how, remarkably for the time, Menzies was whole-heartedly opposed to sectarian bitterness, even clashing with his family over the issue.
Furse-Roberts is a Research Fellow at the Menzies Research Centre. He holds a PhD in history from the University of NSW and is the editor of Howard: The Art of Persuasion (2018) and Menzies: The Forgotten Speeches (2017). Since joining the MRC in 2016, he has written for Quadrant, Spectator Australia, and other publications on the history and contemporary relevance of liberalism in Australia. In 2021 he published God and Menzies: The Faith that Shaped a Prime Minister and his Nation.
In this third episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you can hear Professor Gregory Melleuish on ‘The Idea of Education According to the Young Menzies, 1916-1945’ followed by Emeritus Professor Judith Brett on ‘Menzies's Debt to Deakinite Liberalism’.
Professor Gregory Melleuish delivers a paper prepared with the help of Dr Stephen Chavura, which argues that Menzies saw the pivotal role of universities as the new ‘church’ which could promote higher principles and goals, overcoming the fundamental threat posed by materialism.
Melleuishis a Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, where he teaches, among other things, Australian politics. He has written widely on Australian political thought, including Cultural Liberalism in Australia (1995) and Despotic State or Free Individual (2014), and is considered one of the leading experts on Australian liberalism and conservatism. He co-wrote The Forgotten Menzies (2021) with Steven Chavura and has also published peer-reviewed journal articles discussing Menzies
Judith Brett examines the extent to which Menzies’s style of governance was inspired by Australian Prime Minister and Federation campaigner Alfred Deakin, who was an advocate of a ‘new liberalism’ based on a positive and socially ameliorative role for the state.
Brettis an Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University, where she used to teach and research Australian Politics, Political Biography, and Political History. A former editor of Meanjin and columnist for The Age, she won the National Biography Award in 2018 for The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. She is the author of four Quarterly Essays: Relaxed and Comfortable, Exit Right, Fair Share and The Coal Curse. She has published widely on Menzies and the history of Australian liberalism, with her book Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People winning the Ernest Scott Prize (1992-1993), the Victorian Premier's Literary Award (1993) and the NSW Premier's Literary Award (1993).
In this second episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you can hear The Hon Justice James Edelman’s presentation on ‘Menzies and the Law’.
Justice James Edelman examines Menzies’s brilliant legal career and relationship with the High Court, particularly his involvement in the Engineers Case and the overturning of legislation which attempted to ban the Communist Party
Edelman was appointed to the High Court of Australia in January 2017. Prior to that he was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and a judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He previously practised as a barrister at the chambers of Mr Malcolm McCusker QC in Western Australia from2001-2011 in the areas of criminal law and commercial law and at One Essex Court Chambers from 2008-2011 in commercial law. He was a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford from 2005, and Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Oxford from 2008 until 2011.
In this first episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you can hear The Hon Dr David Kemp’s presentation on ‘Menzies: Time for a Reappraisal?’, followed by Troy Bramston’s presentation on ‘Young Robert’.
The Hon Dr David Kemp AC examines how the historiography surrounding Menzies has developed over the years, and argues that Menzies fought for a ‘politics of principle’ in which convictions would trump sectional and short term interests.
Kemp is a former Federal Member and Minister in the Howard Government. Before entering Parliament he was Professor of Politics at Monash University, and after leaving Parliament Professor and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Melbourne.He is the former Chairman of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and of the Australian Heritage Council.He has published books on voting behaviour and political analysis, and is particularly known for his ground-breaking series on Australian Liberalism published by Melbourne University Press.
Troy Bramston looks at how Menzies’s humble upbringing in the small Victorian wheat township of Jeparit and politically active family background defined his worldview.
Bramstonis a senior writer and columnist with The Australian. He has interviewed politicians, presidents, and prime ministers from multiple countries along with writers, historians, actors, filmmakers, and several notable pop-culture icons. He is an award-winning and best-selling author or editor of 10 books, including Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics (2019) and Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader (2016). He co-authored The Truth of the Palace Letters and The Dismissal (2020) with Paul Kelly. He is currently writing a biography of Bob Hawke.
The Afternoon Light Summer Series showcases the papers presented at the Robert Menzies Institute’s First Annual Conference titled Menzies The Early Years: Success, Failure, Resilience 1894-1942, which was held at the Library, in the Old Quad of the University of Melbourne on 18 November 2021.
The conference examined the early years of Sir Robert’s life and career – from his roots in Jeparit and Melbourne, his brilliant but short-lived legal career, through to State and Federal politics, his successes and failures during his first term as prime minister from 1939- 1941, and finally his wilderness years during which he delivered his Forgotten People speeches.
Episodes of the Summer Series will be released each Wednesday from 22 December 2021 through until the 26 January 2022. After that, the Afternoon Light podcast will resume regular programming.
The six episodes of the Summer Series will comprise:
- Episode One: Dr David Kemp on ‘Menzies: Time for a Reappraisal?’ and Troy Bramston on ‘Young Robert’
- Episode Two: The Hon Justice James Edelman on ‘Menzies and the Law’
- Episode Three: Professor Gregory Melleuish on ‘The Idea of Education According to the Young Menzies, 1916-1945’ and Emeritus Professor Judith Brett on ‘Menzies's Debt to Deakinite Liberalism’
- Episode Four: Dr David Furse-Roberts on ‘A Simple Presbyterian in Politics: Robert Menzies, Liberalism and Anti-Sectarianism’
- Episode Five: Anne Henderson on ‘Preparation for War, the Trade Union Movement and Appeasement’ and Professor Frank Bongiorno on ‘Curtin and Menzies’
- Episode Six: Dr Scott Prasser on ‘The Learning Leader’ and Nick Cater on ‘Forgotten People to Quiet Australians’
In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to author and journalist Gideon Haigh about Doc Evatt and Robert Menzies.
Herbert Vere Evatt and Robert Gordon Menzies led parallel and overlapping lives. Both were: born in 1894, from modest backgrounds, had brilliant minds, able to receive educational opportunities thanks to winning academic prizes, presidents of university student councils, passionate about art and cricket, remarkably successful lawyers who shaped future jurisprudence, served as Attorney General, earned international repute, and led political causes which they firmly believed in. However, because Menzies bested Evatt at three elections whilst the Labor Party was torn apart by internal strife, these days Evatt is often remembered as little more than a ‘hapless and divisive opposition leader’ who enable an unprecedented political supremacy.
In this week’s episode of Afternoon Light, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to former Hawke Government Minister The Hon Barry Jones AC about his friend, Robert Gordon Menzies. Barry visited Menzies many time in his retirement after having sparked the interest of Dame Pattie for his appearances on the ‘Pick A Box’ gameshow. A strong supporter of the Labor Party who served that party in both State and Federal Parliaments, Jones disagrees with many of the decisions that Menzies made throughout his career, and his insights help to reveal some of Menzies’s limitations while also demonstrating his ability to earn the respect of his political opponents.
This week on the Afternoon Light podcast Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer is joined by Dr James Waghorne to discuss the intricacies and eccentricities of the University of Melbourne at the turn of the century. James is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Higher Education and the University of Melbourne’s de facto historian.
When Robert Menzies came to the University of Melbourne to study Law in 1913, it had only around 1000 students. Even that was a great increase from when it opened in the 1850s to teach the sons of pastoralists and to civilise what was a young and brooding Colony that had only just broken off from New South Wales. In his youth Menzies was already a towering and precocious figure. Though he was not a product of wealth, and attended as a non-resident member of Ormond College largely on the back of academic prizes he had won, Menzies became President of the SRC and the editor of the Melbourne University Magazine.
These were Menzies’s formative days when he learned to debate, to write, to give speeches, and to negotiate with personalities and bureaucracies. There were setbacks, like failing Latin in his first year, or receiving backlash for supporting conscription in a war in which he himself had not enlisted. But overall there were tremendous successes that left Menzies self-confident and ready to take on the world. Menzies fell in love with the University of Melbourne; he tutored there, came back for debates in the 1920s, and even returned triumphantly as Chancellor in the late 1960s.
This week on the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Anne Henderson about Liberal trailblazer, Dame Margaret Guilfoyle.
Anne is Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute and the author of many books including on Margaret Guilfoyle, Enid Lyons, Joseph Lyons, Mary Mackillop, Patrick Glynn and more. In 2014 she published Menzies at War, a detailed account of Menzies’s years in the political wilderness between his two stints as prime minister, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for History.
Guilefoyle was a highly respected politician, who followed in a long tradition of active female involvement on the Liberal side of politics. A Senator for Victoria from 1971 to 1987, she rose to become Minister for Social Security and then Minister for Finance in the Fraser Coalition Government. Guilfoyle had the distinction of being the first woman to hold a cabinet-level ministerial portfolio in Australia, and also being the first woman to hold a major economic portfolio.
This week on Afternoon Light Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer is joined by Dr Ben Wilkie to discuss Sir Robert Menzies’s Scottish influences.
While Menzies is often derided for being ‘British to the bootstraps’, there was a distinctively Scottish identity that was vitally important within his broader ‘Britishness’. Menzies was an admirer of Robert Burns, and celebrated Burns Night with a quasi-religious devotion. He was heavily involved in Scottish associations, including the Melbourne Scots and the Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne. Notably Menzies was the only Australian ever knighted in the ‘Order of the Thistle’, an order of chivalry that was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland. A Scots perspective underpinned Menzies’s love of education, and informed his liberalism based on a Presbyterian understanding of the importance of moral independence.
Dr Ben Wilkie is a historian and an Honorary Associate in La Trobe University's Centre for the Study of the Inland. He is the author of The Scots in Australia, 1788-1938 (Boydell Press 2017) and Gariwerd: An Environmental History of the Grampians (CSIRO Publishing 2020), which won the Local History Small Publication Award in the 2020 Victorian Community History Awards.
This week on Afternoon Light Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer is joined by Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO to discuss Indigenous policy under the Menzies Government. From the forming of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies, the 1962 legislative change to give Indigenous people the right to vote in Federal elections and the 1967 referendum, the Menzies legacy is significant.
Warren is a highly respected and influential businessman, political strategist and advocate for empowering Australia’s First People. He serves as the Director of the Indigenous Forum with the Centre for Independent Studies, the Executive Chairman Nyungga Black Group Pty Ltd, and a member of the board of the SBS. He is a member of the Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Yuin people of New South Wales.
In this week’s episode of Afternoon Light, academic and government adviser Dr Scott Prasser joins us to discuss his book ‘Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia’. Scott elaborates on some of the most important public inquiries from the Menzies era, how they directly shaped Menzies’s policymaking, and why Menzies was more selective in his use of them than many modern prime ministers. Key inquiries from the era include the Murray Report on Universities which was pivotal in informing Menzies’s sweeping reforms to tertiary education, the Royal Commission on Espionage which was formed in response to the Petrov defection and which was one of the most controversial and politically charged Commissions in Australian political history, and the Vernon Economic Inquiry instigated by Country Party Leader Black Jack McEwen and which Menzies scuttled.
29 October marks the 65th anniversary of the start of the Suez Conflict, during which Israeli, French and British troops attacked Egypt in an attempt to regain control of the Suez Canal which had been nationalised by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was in this complex and tense situation that Robert Menzies took on a central role on the global stage, acting as the leader of an international committee which sought to convince Nasser to allow an international body to operate the canal.
Joining us to discuss the Suez Crisis is former Australian Ambassador and author of Australia, Menzies and Suez: Australian Policymaking on the Middle East Before, During and After the Suez Crisis, Dr Bob Bowker.
During the Menzies era Australian foreign aid spending achieved its highest ever average as a percentage of our GDP, while in 1959 Prime Minister Robert Menzies was able to boast that Australia had taken in more refugees per head of population than any other country in the world, a fact of which he was tremendously proud. Joining us to discuss these issues is the Reverend Tim Costello AO. Tim is one of Australia’s most respected community leaders and a sought after voice on social justice issues, leadership and ethics.
Joining us this week on Afternoon Light to discuss Menzies’s political beliefs is Dr Stephen Chavura, lecturer in history at Campion College. Steve has written a new book, with Professor Greg Melleuish from the University of Wollongong, The Forgotten Menzies. Steve and Greg unpack Menzies’s political philosophy in its own context and on its own terms, not as a liberal nor a conservative.
Joining us this week on Afternoon Light to discuss his new book God and Menzies: The Faith that Shaped a Prime Minister and His Nation is Dr David-Furse Roberts. David is a Research Fellow at the Menzies Research Centre.
Margaret Fitzherbert, the CEO of the McKinnon Institute for Political Leadership, joins Afternoon Light this week to discuss the history of Australia’s Liberal women. The majority of the first women to sit in Australia’s various Parliaments were from the liberal or conservative movement. Sir Robert Menzies built the modern Liberal Party with the support of women and his electoral success was partly down to his appeal to the female vote.
Seventy years ago Australians were asked to give the Federal Government sweeping powers to ban communists and legislate on them, and by the narrowest of margins they voted ‘no’. Leading Australian constitutional lawyer, Professor George Williams, joins Afternoon Light to discuss the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party Referendum on 22 September 2021.
Prominent Australian economist, Henry Ergas AO, joins Afternoon Light to discuss the economic legacy of the Menzies era, a period of sustained economic growth where unemployment was virtually zero, home ownership expanded rapidly, and the middle class, the backbone of Menzies’s forgotten people, made up an ever-increasing proportion of Australian society.
Sean Jacobs is the author of a new biographical monograph on Neville Bonner, the first Indigenous member of Australia’s Federal Parliament.
Neville Bonner was a truly remarkable Australian. Not only did he blaze a trail as the first Indigenous member of our Federal Parliament, but his life serves as a shining example of an individual overcoming tremendous disadvantage in order to make a real impact.
Sean is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian writer and public policy specialist who brings a unique perspective to a subject that deserves far more attention.
Stephen Loosley AM speaks about Australia in the leadup to the signing of ANZUS, particularly the contribution of Labor Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley, how ANZUS operates in the present day and what the future holds for the Alliance.
Stephen Loosley AM is Deputy Chairman of Thales Australia, and Non-Resident Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the US Studies Centre. He served as a Senator for NSW in the Australian Parliament during the Hawke and Keating Governments (1990-1995), where he chaired both the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and the Senate Regulations Committee.
As we continue our ANZUS podcast series on Afternoon Light, US foreign policy expert Professor Timothy Lynch talks about the changing geopolitics of ANZUS, from World War II, the Cold War, and the rise of China.
On 1 September 1951, Australia signed the ANZUS security pact with the United States and New Zealand. 70 years on, former Australian Defence Minister Dr Brendan Nelson shares his reflections on ANZUS, its legacy and its future.
The signing of the ANZUS treaty on 1 September 1951, in San Francisco, California, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
September 1st marks the 70th Anniversary of the signing of the ANZUS treaty, arguably the most important strategic document in Australia’s post-war history. Though it has thankfully only had to be invoked once, by John Howard in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, ANZUS has been the backbone of Australia’s defence for 70 years. The product of careful negotiation and fortuitous circumstances, ANZUS is one of the Menzies Government’s most enduring legacies, maintaining relevance in an ever-changing world. Indeed, at his retirement press conference Menzies himself described it as ‘the best single step that had been taken in the time of my Government’.
The events of World War Two had starkly revealed that the United States of America was the coming power in the Pacific. Menzies himself had pre-empted this, appointing in 1940 the first Australian legation to the United States. The United States was credited with ‘saving Australia’ against the ‘Japanese menace’, and as the new threat of Communism emerged on the horizon, successive Australian Governments were anxious to secure America’s enduring commitment to our defence.
Australia and America were clearly united by shared values, most important of which was a shared belief in liberal democracy, but the Americans had nevertheless resisted the entreaties of the Chifley Government to form a defensive pact. In 1951 the Menzies Government’s prompt committal of troops to the U.N. backed Korean War, combined with an American need to get Australia to agree to a ‘soft’ peace treaty with Japan that would allow her partial rearmament, created a circumstance in which negotiations could finally bear fruit. Australia’s Ambassador to the United States Percy Spender has traditionally been given the lion’s share of the credit for this outcome, but Menzies was also vital, particularly in his far-sighted views towards Japan that would later produce the famous Commerce Agreement of 1957.
To celebrate this important occasion, the Robert Menzies Institute has three special guests who will be joining us on the Afternoon Light Podcast to discuss the ANZUS legacy. They are:
Stephen Loosely AM, Deputy Chairman, Non-Executive Director of Thales, former Labor Senator and current Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre. During the Hawke and Keating Governments he chaired the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
Professor Timothy Lynch, Professor in American Politics and the Associate Dean (International) in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. He has written several books on American foreign policy, the latest of which is In the Shadow of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy from George Bush Sr. to Donald Trump.
Dr Brendan Nelson AO, President of Boeing Australia, former Minister for Defence, Australian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, the European Union and NATO, and later Director of the Australian War Memorial. He was in charge of defence at a time when Australian troops were deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
Afternoon Light is the podcast of the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne. Each week your host, Georgina Downer, will discuss Sir Robert Menzies’s contemporary legacy with guests from Australia and around the world.