Afternoon Light

Summer Series 2022-3 Part 4: Lucas McLennan & Lorraine Finlay

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).

Summer Series 2022-3 Part 3: Tom Switzer, Andrew Blyth, & Christopher Beer

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).

Summer Series 2022-3 Part 2: Troy Bramston & Charles Richardson

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).

Summer Series 2022-3 Part 1: George Brandis, Nicolle Flint, & Anne Henderson

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).

Dean Kotlowski, ‘Not going to disappear’ Comparing American & Australian Indigenous Policy

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.

Stephen Wilks, ‘This extraordinary synthesis of ideas for the Australian nation’ Earle Page

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.

William Cook, ‘The sheer size of it’ Menzies’s Marvelous Book Collection

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.

David Lee, ‘I don’t vote for them, but I’ll vote for John Curtin’ Labor’s Wartime Leader

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.

Meg Gurry, ‘Australia has always been strategically inconsequential’ The Development of the India-Australia Relationship

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.

Elizabeth Tynan, ‘They Had No Business Making Those Assurances’ British Nuclear Tests in Australia

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.