Afternoon Light

The Arts’ Last Advocate: Menzies and the Cause of Liberal Education | Jacob Carson

What did Menzies have to do with the idea of Liberal Education?
Jacob Carson discusses with Georgina Downer how Menzies was at the centre of the push and pull between vocational and commercial understandings toward higher education, and how this debate still goes on today.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series. ➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Freedom, Empire, and the ‘Ordinary Australian’ | Josh Woodward

What does the 'ordinary Australian' actually mean? 
Josh Woodward talks to Georgina Downer about how the idea of the 'Ordinary Australian' confronts notions of Empire, as well as the concept of individual freedoms.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Popular Criticism of Menzies’ War Aims | Aaron Marston-Pattison

What was the public willing to support in wartime during Menzies's era? 
Aaron Marston-Pattison speaks to Georgina Downer about which aspects of Menzies's war aims the public was willing to support.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Remembering the Anglo-Australian Relationship of the 20th Century | Scarlett Wakelin

How do we look back on the Anglo-Australian relationship when we look at the history of Australia? 
Scarlett Wakelin speaks with Georgina Downer on the nature of the Anglo-Australian relationship that persisted through the 20th century.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Menzies the Student, Menzies the Statesman | Nick Warren

How did Menzies' undergraduate career become reflected in the trials and accomplishments of his life as a statesman?
Nick Warren talks to Georgina Downer in this episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast, recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media:
X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst / Facebook: robertmenziesinstitute / Instagram: robertmenziesinstitute

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 6: Will Stoltz, Sean Jacobs, David Furse-Roberts & Christopher Beer

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2024 conference entitled ‘The Final Chapter: Purpose, Endurance and Legacy 1961-66 and Beyond’. This sixth episode features Will Stoltz on 'Managed Decolonisation', Sean Jacob's paper 'Relaxed and Comfortable: Menzies and the fall of Empire (1961-66)' (begins at 19:15), David Furse-Robert's paper 'Homes Material, Homes Human and Homes Spiritual: The Menzies Government and Housing Policy' (begins at 35:25), and Christoper Beer's paper 'The frontier of property-owning democracy: Housing, the reform of Australian liberal urbanism, and electoral politics in Western Sydney, 1961-1966' (begins 54:45).
Will Stoltz is a security and foreign affairs scholar and former Australian national security official. He is a Lecturer & Expert Associate at the ANU's National Security College and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Menzies Institute, where he's researched the Menzies Government's foreign policy decisions and role in establishing the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.
Sean Jacobs is a Port Moresby-born Australian writer, government relations and policy specialist. He has worked with all levels of government in PNG, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. He currently works in local government in Australia. Sean is the author of three books, and has published with the Diplomatic Courier, International Affairs Review, Small Wars Journal, The Spectator and the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He is a graduate of Griffith and Macquarie Universities, and currently serves as a Griffith Asia Institute Industry Fellow.
David 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.
Christopher Beer is an academic whose research has spanned many aspects of Australian urbanism. He completed his doctoral studies at the Australian National University and subsequently held associations with the University of Canberra, Macquarie University, and the University of Newcastle.

Maya Khurana Redefines Australian Middle Class Identity

Was Menzies for class segregation, or was he a vehement opponent of the entire system? 
Maya Khurana talks to Georgina Downer about the Australian middle-class, and how Menzies drove significant change whilst challenging the notion of class at the same time.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series. ➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute by visiting our website.
📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst / Facebook: robertmenziesinstitute / Instagram: robertmenziesinstitute
 

Orlando Throsby on Australia and NZ | Two Sides of the Same Sea

How did Australia's relationship with New Zealand come to define both countries histories, both between each other as well as their relations with neighboring Asia-Pacific countries? 
Orlando Throsby talks to Georgina Downer about the history of Australia and New Zealand's relationship with each other - as well as their neighbors. This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute by visiting our website.
📱Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst /  Facebook: robertmenziesinstitute / Instagram: robertmenziesinstitute

Georgia Lowden on Policy Settings and Housing Booms | Lessons from Menzies

How much has the value of Australian home ownership changed between Menzies' era and our own? 
On a special edition of Afternoon Light, Georgina Downer talks to Georgia Lowden  This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 5: Anne Henderson, Jennifer Clark, James Waghorne, Gwilym Croucher & Lyndon Megarrity

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2024 conference entitled ‘The Final Chapter: Purpose, Endurance and Legacy 1961-66 and Beyond’. This fifth episode features Anne Henderson on 'The Menzies Government, B A Santamaria and the Beginning of State Aid', Jennifer Clark's paper on 'Science and Science Education' (begins at 15:00), James Waghorne & Gwilym Croucher's paper 'University unlimited: Commonwealth Scholarships in Australian universities, 1951-1974' (begins at 40:40), and Lyndon Megarrity's paper 'Menzies and Liberal Education' (begins 59:45).
Anne 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 detailedaccount 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. In 2024 she published Menzies Versus Evatt: The Great Rivalry of Australian Politics.
Jennifer Clark is a historian from the University of Adelaide. She is the author of Aborigines and Activism: Race, Aborigines & the Coming of the Sixties to Australia and The American Idea of England, 1776-1840. Her current research interests coverpost war Australian history, including memorial culture, science education, automotive history and history pedagogy. She has published several articles relating to the Menzies era exploring science education, race and Australian American relations.
James Waghorne is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Higher Education and the University of Melbourne’s de facto historian. His work reaches across the history of university governance, university disciplines, the heritage ofuniversity campuses, and the changing influence of campus life and culture on the student experience. Additionally, he takes in the historical connections between universities and the state, industry and community groups. James is the co-author of Australian Universities: A History of Common Cause, Liberty: A History of Civil Liberties in Australia, and co-editor of The First World War, the Universities and the Professions in Australia, 1914–1936.
Gwilym Croucher is the Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. A former Fulbright Scholar, his research focuses on different aspects of the political economy of higher education. He has published widely on higher education policy and management and led large publicly funded research projects. He is also a regular media commentator on higher education in Australia.
Lyndon Megarrity is adjunct lecturer at James Cook University in Townsville, where he teaches history and political science. His research interests include Queensland, Northern Australia, and overseas student policy. He is also the author or co-author of several books, including Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia, which won the 2019 Chief Minister’s Northern Territory History Book Award. With Carolyn Holbrook and David Lowe, he co-edited Lessons from History (NewSouth, 2022), a collection of essays on contemporary issues and debates informed by history. Published in 2024, Megarrity’s latest book is the first biography of Dr Rex Patterson, Minister for Northern Development in the Whitlam Government.