Afternoon Light

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 4: Damien Freeman, Dean Smith, Josh Woodward & Michael de Percy

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 fourth episode features Damien Freeman and Senator Dean Smith on 'Recommending an Appointment to the Sovereign', Josh Woodward's paper '"A cure for prejudice": Robert Menzies, Travel and Nationalism in the 1960s' (begins at 27:03), and Michael de Percy's paper 'From the bottom of the sea to the moon: Menzies and Australia’s communications golden age' (begins at 43:27).
Damien Freeman is a Fellow of the Robert Menzies Institute and an Honorary Fellow of Australian Catholic University, whose most recent book is The End of Settlement: Why the 2023 referendum failed.
Dean Smith has been a Liberal Senator for Western Australia since May 2012. He is a member of the Coalition’s Shadow Economic Team, having been appointed Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury in June 2022. He was previously a member of the Coalition Government’s Senate Leadership Team – elected Chief Government Whip in the Senate by his Liberal Senate colleagues in January 2019. Dean was awarded the McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership in 2018 by a panel of eminent Australians, including John Howard and Julia Gillard. Prior to entering the Senate, he held senior executive roles at Insurance Australia Group and SingTel Optus. Dean brings to his Senate role extensive policy experience, having worked as Policy Adviser to both Western Australian Premier Richard Court and Prime Minister John Howard. His Parliamentary Committee roles include member of the Senate Economics Committee and Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living Committee, Chair of the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee and Deputy Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Implementation of the National Redress Scheme. He was previously the Coalition Government’s nominee to the Advisory Council of the ANU China in the World Centre, and was appointed to the National Archives of Australia Advisory Council in July 2022. In 2011 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Liberal Party of Australia.
Josh Woodward is an Australian environmental historian whose research explores representations of nature in tourist advertising. He has published several articles on the tourist promotion of Australian national parks and their emergence as important sites of the settler-nation. He completed his Master’s at the University of Western Australia, where he was the 2019 recipient of the Frank Broeze scholarship. Josh will complete his PhD on twentieth century Australian tourist advertising at the Australian National University in 2025.
Michael de Percy is Senior Lecturer in Politic Science at the University of Canberra. His qualifications include a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University, a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) from the University of Canberra, and a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILTA), and a Member of the Royal Society of NSW. He is National Vice President of the Telecommunications Association, Chairman of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter of CILTA, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon where he received the Royal Australian Artillery Prize. He was appointed to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts in 2022 and as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy from 2025. Michael's political commentary appears regularly in The Spectator Australia and on Spectator Australia TV.

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 3: Andrew Carr, Tom Lewis & Lucas McLennan

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 third episode features Andrew Carr on 'The ADF Menzies Built', Tom Lewis's paper 'The Menzies defence legacy: wise, brave, and enduring' (begins at 20:20), and Lucas McLennan's paper on 'Australian anti-Communist organisations in the Vietnam War debate' (begins at 39:10).
Andrew Carr is a Senior Lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. His research focuses on Strategy and Australian Defence Policy. He has published in outlets such as Survival, Parameters, Journal of Strategic Studies, Australian Foreign Affairs, International Theory, The Washington Quarterly, and Comparative Strategy. He has a sole authored book with Melbourne University Press and has edited books with Oxford University Press and Georgetown University Press. He is currently a member of the ANU-Defence Strategic Policy History Project, writing a history of Australian Defence White Papers from 1976-2020.
Tom Lewis OAM is a military historian, the author of 22 books, and a public speaker and presenter. He is a retired naval officer who served in combat as an Intelligence analyst; an ex-secondary school teacher, pilot, and scuba divemaster. He was the Director of Darwin Military Museum in its redevelopment from 2009 to 2013. His Order of Australia was bestowed on him for services to naval history. He has won numerous prizes for his literary works, the most recent being as the national winner of the 2021 Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize for Teddy Sheean VC. Tom is an expert on World War II, especially in the Pacific, but he has also written in areas analysing medieval combat, military aviation, and the reality of battlefield behaviour. His latest books are The Sinking of HMAS Sydney, which examined life on board WWII warships as well as the final fight between Sydney and Kormoran, and Cyclone Warriors –the Armed Forces in Cyclone Tracy.
Lucas McLennan works as a Senior History Teacher. He completed an Honours Degree in History and teaching qualifications at Monash University and recently completed a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne. His Masters thesis was on the Education policy of the first Anglican Bishop in Australia, William Grant Broughton, while his earlier Honours thesis examined Australia's compulsory military training schemes between Federation and the First World War. He has a strong interest in Australia's political, religious, and cultural history.

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 2: Jim Walter, John Hawkins & Nicholas Brown

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 second episode features Jim Walter's paper on 'Robert Menzies and Allen Brown: The odd couple?', John Hawkin's paper on 'Menzies and the Vernon Report' (begins at 22:52), and Nicholas Brown's paper ‘"A risky enterprise": Menzies, Sir John Crawford and the Vernon Committee' (begins at 42:42).
Jim Walter is Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Walter has published widely on Australian politics, history, biography and culture. Among his books are The Leader: a political biography of Gough Whitlam (1980), The Ministers’ Minders: personal advisers in national government (1986), Intellectual Movements and Australian Society (with Brian Head, 1988), Tunnel Vision: the failure of political imagination (1996), The Citizens’ Bargain: a documentary history of Australian views since 1890 (2002), No, prime minister: reclaiming politics from leaders (with Paul Strangio, 2007), What were they thinking? The politics of ideas in Australia (2010), Settling the Office: The Australian Prime Ministership from Federation to Reconstruction (with Paul Strangio and Paul ‘t Hart, 2016) and The Pivot of Power: Australian Prime Ministers and Political Leadership 1949-2016 (with Paul Strangio and Paul ‘t Hart, 2017).
Dr John Hawkins is deputy head of the Canberra School of Politics, Economics & Society at the University of Canberra. He was awarded a PhD in political science from the Australian National University for his thesis on the Australian treasurers. He also holds an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics and an MA in politics and history from Macquarie University. He is co-editor of History of Economics Review. He previously worked in the Australian Treasury and the Reserve Bank and served as secretary of the Senate Economics Committee. He was interviewed for the Afternoon Light podcast in August 2023 on Menzies as treasurer.
Nicholas Brown is a professor in the School of History, Australian National University, with interests in Australian social, political and public policy history and biography. His current projects include a biographical study of Sir John Crawford, in collaboration with Frank Bongiorno, David Lee and the late Stuart Macintyre.

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 1: Geoffrey Blainey, David Lee & Selwyn Cornish

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 first episode features the keynote address delivered by Geoffrey Blainey, David Lee's paper on 'Menzies and the Dual Economy, 1961-66' (begins at 21:29), and Selwyn Cornish on 'RG Menzies and the Introduction of Decimal Currency' (begins at 31:48).
Geoffrey Blainey is known for his texts on Australian economic and social history. His first book, The Peaks of Lyell, was published in 1954. His second book, The University of Melbourne: A Centenary Portrait (1956), led him back to academia, and in 1961 he began his teaching career in economic history at the University of Melbourne. He was made professor in 1968, and in 1977 he was given the Ernest Scott chair in history. His later books included The Causes of War (1973), Triumph of the Nomads (1975), A Land Half Won (1980), A Shorter History of Australia (1994), Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals (2009), and A Short History of Christianity (2011). Before I Forget: An Early Memoir was published in 2019.
David Lee is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Canberra. He is the author inter alia of John Curtin, Connor Court, 2022 and The Second Rush: Mining and the Transformation of Australia, Connor Court, 2016.
Selwyn Cornish is Honorary Associate Professor in the School of History, Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, and the Official Historian of the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Emma McEwin on Sir Douglas Mawson | “Always curious, always inquiring”

At what price, of human endeavour and sacrifice, did Australia purchase its claim to 42% of Antarctica?
On Afternoon Light #177 Georgina Downer speaks with author Dr Emma McEwin to discuss her great-grandfather Sir Douglas Mawson. A man whom Menzies lauded for providing ‘the key with which to unlock the door’ of the mysteries of the frozen continent.
Dr Emma McEwin holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Adelaide. A great-granddaughter of Sir Douglas Mawson, she has authored An Antarctic Affair: A story of love and survival (2008) and The Many Lives of Douglas Mawson (2018).

Malcolm Mackerras AO on Ranking Australia’s PMs | “Good for a parlour game”

Who is Australia’s greatest prime minister & by what criteria should you even make the judgement?
On Afternoon Light #176 Georgina Downer speaks with Malcolm Mackerras AO, to engage in the fun but highly controversial task of ranking Australia’s prime ministers. No prizes for guessing who ended up at number one!
Malcolm Mackerras AO is Australia’s leading psephologist, having worked in the field for more than 50 years. He is known for inventing the Mackerras pendulum, which helps predict election results in a preferential voting system based around two major parties.

Francesco Ricatti on Italian Migration | “Your own identity... is evolving”

What does it mean to be an Italian in Australia, & has the act of migration itself shaped this sense of identity?
On Afternoon Light #175 Georgina Downer speaks with Francesco Ricatti, author of Italians in Australia, about the impetus, complexities, tribulations and effects of Italy’s vast population movements. A process which served to ‘create’ Italy, almost as much as it exported the idea.
Francesco Ricatti is the Associate Professor of Italian and convenor of the Italian Studies programme at the Australian National University. He has a PhD from the University of Sydney and was previously Cassamarca Lecturer in Italian at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He is the author of Italians in Australia: History, Memory, Identity and Embodying Migrants: Italians in Postwar Australia.

Afternoon Light Live: David Kemp & Zachary Gorman on the Liberal Party's 80th Anniversary | “One wet cloudy day in Canberra"

Why has the Liberal Party long outlived its predecessors?
16 October 2024 marked 80 years since the close of the Canberra Unity Conference, widely considered to be the 'birth date' of the Liberal Party of Australia. To mark the occasion, we broadcast our first-ever 'Afternoon Light Live', an interactive webinar which allowed the audience to become directly involved in the discussion between host Georgina Downer and guests David Kemp and Zachary Gorman. Both of whom were central contributors to our new book Unity in Autonomy: A Federal History of the Founding of the Liberal Party.
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.

Nigel Biggar on the Moral Complexities of the British Empire | "Let's go conquer the world"

Are modern denunciations of Empire anachronistic, and how does the shame they propagate hinder the West's ability to defend itself?
On Afternoon Light #173 Georgina Downer speaks with Nigel Biggar, author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, to discuss how demonising the past has real-world consequences for the present. Unpacking the moral ambiguities of the British Empire, as a series of conquests and administrations that emerged ad hoc, and which frequently produced contradictions.
Nigel Biggar CBE is Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Pusey House, Oxford. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from Oxford and a Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago. He was appointed C.B.E. “for services to Higher Education” in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. His most recent books are Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (2023), What’s Wrong with Rights? (2020), In Defence of War (2013), and Between Kin and Cosmopolis: An Ethic of the Nation (2014). In the press he has written articles for the Financial Times, the (London) Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Spectator, the (Glasgow) Herald, the Irish Times, Standpoint, The Critic, The Article, Unherd and Quillette.

Sherry Sufi on the Origins of the Western Australian Liberal Party | "Very Unique Mindset"

Are Western Australians a bunch of secessionists, and what else makes the politics of our most isolated state unique?
In the tenth 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 Sherry Sufi to discuss the history of liberalism in Australia's Wild West.
Dr Sherry Sufi is a Western Australian Historian, Author, Columnist and Political Commentator. He has authored two books, From Cavemen to Countrymen: The Linguistic Roots of Nationalism, and Australia On Trial: Accusations and Defence. Since 2015, Dr Sufi has served as Chairman of the Policy Committee for the Liberal Party of WA at the state level.