Stefan Petrow on the origins of the Tasmanian Liberal Party | “An anti-socialist paradise”

If a Labor Party is conservative enough to produce Joseph Lyons, what space does that leave for their centre-right opponents?

In the fourth episode of a special series of the Afternoon Light Podcast, marking the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Liberal Party and the release of the new book on the history of that event, Unity in Autonomy, Georgina Downer speaks with chapter contributor Stefan Petrow, about how Tasmania proved itself to be innately conversative, yet took 25 years to elect a Liberal government.

Stefan Petrow is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Tasmania, where he previously worked as a Lecturer in History and Classics in the School of Humanities. In 2022 he was awarded the Clive Lord Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of Tasmania for his outstanding contribution to Tasmanian history.