Afternoon Light

David Stevens, ‘What should you stand for?’ The Future of Australian Liberalism

Where to now for the Coalition? The aftermath of the 2022 federal election, and the advent of an era of big government which has swept much of the western world, has ushered in a period of soul searching for the Australian centre-right – but it is crucial to remember that this is not without precedent. The 1940s and 1980s were similarly wilderness years that ultimately acted as the springboard for the two longest serving governments in Australian history. The key is to use Opposition productively, and to ensure that when the Coalition eventually does return to office, it has a clear sense of purpose.
Get your copy of Dignity and Prosperity here
Want to hear more? Listen to Harry Stutchbury talk about liberal policies for the present
Want to learn more? Read our On This Day article about how the Liberal Party of Australia got its name
Bonus fact:
Robert Menzies was a member of two different centre-right parties before he founded the Liberal Party. Much of his early career was spent pushing for what he described as a ‘politics of principle’ in which policy would be based on clearly articulated philosophy, rather than vested interests and electoral imperatives.
David Stevens has spent the last 30 years leading major strategy and policy reform projects for public and private sector clients across the globe. He worked for Prime Minister Howard in the 1990s.

Jim Walter, ‘Stay on message’ The Evolving Office of the Prime Minister

Can you imagine Australian politics without press advisers and spin doctors? The office of the prime minister has evolved immensely over the years. When Edmund Barton was our country’s first leader, he claimed to carry the entire records of the government in his briefcase. Nowadays, the office of the prime minister is a behemoth made up of numerous people, its growth being matched only by our ever-increasing expectations of what the federal government is supposed to do. Learn the how and the why of the development of the most important position in Australia.
Want to learn more? Read this parliamentary paper explaining the origins an evolution of the prime ministership
Want to hear more? Listen to Bridget Griffen-Foley talk about how PMs like Menzies have handled the media
Bonus fact:
Menzies was so close to his leading public servants that they were referred to as ‘the boys’. Sundays at The Lodge often involved boozy dinner parties with them.

Karl Schmude, ‘Transcended his time’ G.K. Chesterton

Have you heard of G.K. Chesterton? One of the most prolific authors of the early 20th century, Chesterton has recently been experiencing a revival. With humorous, inciteful, and even prophetic views on ‘everything’ - including politics, religion, the press, economics and more, it is easy to see why. Chesterton was one of Menzies’s many favourite authors, whom he used to refer to as ‘that laughing philosopher’. There’s even an Australian Chesterton Society.
Who is G.K. Chesterton? Find out more here
Fascinated by Chesterton? Buy tickets to this year’s Chesterton Conference at Campion College Sydney
Bonus Fact:
Menzies quoted extensively from Chesterton to explain ‘The Place of a University in a Modern Community’, in an important speech he delivered as Prime Minister in 1939: ‘The whole point of education is that it should give a man abstract and eternal standards, by which he can judge material and fugitive conditions. If the citizen is to be a reformer, he must start with some ideal which he does not obtain merely by gazing reverently at the unreformed institutions. And if anyone asks, as so many are asking: “What is the use of my son learning all about ancient Athens and remote China and medieval guilds and monasteries, and all sorts of dead or distant things, when he is going to be a superior scientific plumber in Pimlico?” the answer is obvious enough. “The use of it is that he may have some power of comparison, which will not only prevent him from supposing that Pimlico covers the whole planet, but also enable him, while doing full credit to the beauties and virtues of Pimlico, to point out that, here and there, as revealed by alternative experiments, even Pimlico may conceal somewhere a defect.”...
Anyhow, that is what is the matter with Business Education; that it narrows the mind; whereas the whole object of education is to broaden the mind; and especially to broaden it so as to enable it to criticize and condemn such narrowness. Everybody ought to learn first a general view of the history of man, of the nature of man, and (as I, for one, should add) of the nature of God. This may enable him to consider the rights and wrongs of slavery in a slave community, of cannibalism in a cannibal community, or of commerce in a commercial community. If he is immediately initiated into the mysteries of these institutions themselves, if he is sworn in infancy to take them as seriously as they take themselves, if he becomes a trader not only before he becomes a traveller, but even before he becomes a true citizen of his own town, he will never be able to denounce those institutions—or even to improve them. Such a state will never have the ideas or imagination to reform itself; and hustle and bustle and business activity will have resulted in the dead fixity of a fossil.’

Allan Pidgeon, ‘Part of National Folklore’ The Story of the Australian Flag

Were you aware that Australia was the first country in the world to hold an open competition to design its national flag? Or that the seventh point was added to the flag’s Federation Star when Australia acquired the territory of Papua, an integral part of modern-day PNG? Ahead of Australian National Flag Day on 3 September – an annual commemoration marking the anniversary of the date in 1901 on which the Australian flag was first flown – you can hear the untold story of our key national symbol.
Want to know more about Australian National Flag Day? Check out the Commonwealth Government’s official webpage
Want to learn more? Read our On This Day Post on the 1953 Flags Act
Want further resources? Visit the Australian National Flag Association
Bonus fact:
The Australian flag closely resembles the flag of the Anti-Transporation League – an organisation formed to fight for the abolition of convict transportation to Australia in the late 1840s and early 1850s. This campaign marked the first time that the colonies of Australasia united to achieve a common goal and it thus directly presaged federation. However, there was one key difference – New Zealand was a part of the Anti-Transportation League, but Western Australia was not.

Nyunggai Warren Mundine, ‘Only part of their story’ The Journey of Indigenous Australians from Menzies to the Voice

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.’

Ted Ling, ‘I Became An Apostle’ Menzies’s Mission to Develop Canberra

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.

John Hawkins, ‘Prepared in a time of peace’ Menzies as Treasurer

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.

Harry Stutchbury, ‘We know it empirically’ Markets and Prosperity

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.

Stephen Chavura, ‘Not the Established Religion, but part of the Establishment’ Faith and Secularism in Australia

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?

Tony Abbott, ‘Above All Else Patriots’ Battling for Australian Liberalism

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.