Afternoon Light

Jennifer Clark, ‘There’s Sputnik, what’s your answer?’ Revolutionising Australian science education

When the Soviet satellite Sputnik entered Earth’s orbit in October 1957 it caused panic throughout much of the West. This ‘beeping bauble’ was seen as an existential threat, that exposed democracies as being too preoccupied with consumer luxuries over scientific endeavour. In response, both Eisenhower and Menzies resolved calmly but resolutely to fix their nation’s systems of science education, to first compete with the Russians and then prepare for the future. Our guest Professor Jennifer Clark tells the untold story behind Menzies’s 1964 advent of Commonwealth funding for secondary schools, which was about more that the headline sectarian issue of ‘state aid’.
Want to learn more? Read about how the Menzies Government helped America win the space race.
Professor Jennifer Clark is a Professor of History at the University of Adelaide. Holding a PhD from the University of Sydney, she was a Harkness Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and, most recently, a Redmond Barry Fellow to State Library of Victoria. She was until recently Head of the School of Humanities, University of Adelaide.

Ross McMullin, ‘Yes Mr. Watson’ Our First Labor PM

Did you know that Australia was home to the first labour national government in the world? As the first Labor PM and first Federal leader of the ALP, Chris Watson is seldom remembered as more than the answer to a trivia question. Yet this should not be the case, as he has a remarkable story that reveals the Labor perspective on the emergence of our enduring party system. Hear how a humble boy born in odd circumstances off the coast of Chile ended up rising to the highest position in our nation. Joining us this week on the Afternoon Light Podcast is Watson’s biographer Ross McMullin. 
Want to learn more? Listen to the other side of the story from Watson’s contemporary & Liberal Prime Minister Joseph Cook.
Ross McMullin is an award-winning historian, biographer, and storyteller. His biographies include Pompey Elliott, which won multiple awards, and Will Dyson: Australia’s radical genius, and he also assembled Elliott’s extraordinary letters in Pompey Elliott at War: in his own words. His political histories comprise The Light on the Hill and So Monstrous a Travesty: Chris Watson and the world’s first national labour government. His book Farewell, Dear People: biographies of Australia’s lost generation was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History. 

William Coleman, ‘Australia’s Sham Federation’ The flawed process which produced our Commonwealth

Was federation a mistake? While many can find flaws in the workings of our federal system, few have had the gall to question the triumphal tone of our founding narrative. That was until the recent publication of the provocative and iconoclastic book Their Fiery Cross of Union: A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914. In this week’s Afternoon Light podcast, we are joined by its author William Coleman, who argues that we should be wary of automatically revering our political inheritance. 
Want to learn more? Read the papers from the 2019 ‘Demytholigising Australia’s Federation Episode’ Conference, published in Agenda.
William Coleman is a Reader in the School of Economics at ANU. He is widely published in the History of Economic Thought and contemporary economic controversies. He was the convenor of the ‘Demythologising Federation’ Conference held at Fremantle in 2019, and is the author of Their Fiery Cross Of Union: A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914. 

Frank Bongiorno, ‘A vision of the good society’ The Dreamers & Schemers of Australian political history

Distilling the essence of Australia’s political history is an incredibly complex task. To understand the full picture, you certainly cannot begin in 1901, nor can you focus on events purely at the Commonwealth level. One of Australia’s leading historians has recently attempted the great feat of writing a single volume political history of our nation, and the story he tells will help you gain a greater insight into your own country. Joining us on the Afternoon Light podcast is Professor Frank Bongiorno, author of Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia.
Want to hear more from Frank? Watch him give a paper at our first annual conference in 2021.
Frank Bongiorno is professor of history at the Australian National University and president of the Australian Historical Association. One of Australia’s most respected historians, he is the author of several award-winning histories, including The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia and The Sex Lives of Australians.

Ryan Cropp, ‘The world that he was renouncing’ Donald Horne & the Lucky Country

Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country is one of the most iconic books ever written on Australia. While many people miss the ironic nature of the title, the work helped to establish the stereotype of the 1950s and early 60s as a dull and suffocating period in which nothing much happened in our nation. But who was Horne, and what caused him to have such cynicism about the state of his country? Joining us to unpack Horne's fascinating story is biographer Ryan Cropp.
Dr Ryan Cropp, writer and historian, is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Donald Horne: A Life in the Luck Country. His writing has appeared in Australian Book Review, Overland and Inside Story.

Summer Series 2023-4 Part 6: Stephen Wilks, Lyndon Megarrity & Gregory Melleuish

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2023 conference entitled ‘The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains 1954-1961’. This sixth episode features Stephen Wilks’s paper ‘Falling Dully On His Ears: Menzies, Bolte, and the Travails of Australian Federalism’, Lyndon Megarrity’s paper ‘Menzies, Queensland and the 1961 Election’ (begins 23:26), and Greg Melleuish’s paper ‘Was Menzies Lucky?’ (begins 44:25).
Dr Stephen Wilks studied economic history at Monash University before embarking on a mixed career in government based in Canberra and overseas. This was leavened by a shadow career writing reviews and articles on Australian history and much else, prior to returning to study in the School of History at ANU. He is now a Lecturer in the ANU’s National Centre of Biography, and is author of ‘Now is the Psychological Moment’: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia (ANU Press, 2020). He recently completed a project funded by the Department of the House of Representatives, published by ANU Press as ‘Order, Order!’: A Biographical Dictionary of Speakers, Deputy Speakers and Clerks of the Australian House of Representatives, and is now researching the Bolte premiership.
Dr Lyndon Megarrity is adjunct lecturer at James Cook University in Townsville and 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. Megarrity’s forthcoming book will be the first ever biography of Dr Rex Patterson, Minister for Northern Australia in the Whitlam Government.
Professor Gregory Melleuish is a Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, where he teaches, among other things, Australian politics. He has written widely on Australian political thought, including Cultural Liberalism in Australia (1995) and Despotic State or Free Individual (2014), and is considered one of the leading experts on Australian liberalism and conservatism. He co-wrote The Forgotten Menzies (2021) with Stephen Chavura and has also published peer-reviewed journal articles discussing Menzies.

Summer Series 2023-4 Part 5: David Furse-Roberts, Damien Freeman, Andrew Bragg & Julian Leeser

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2023 conference entitled ‘The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains 1954-1961’. This fifth episode features David Furse-Roberts’ paper ‘Standing for the ‘most ample provision in respect of old age and sickness’: The Menzies Government and health reform’, Damien Freeman & Andrew Bragg’s paper ‘Menzies, Hasluck, Wentworth and Indigenous Peoples’ (begins 19:35), and Julian Leeser’s address ‘Menzies on Presbyterians, Catholics and Jews. Lessons on religious freedom for today’ (begins 40:19).
Dr David Furse-Roberts 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.
Dr Damien Freeman was the Principal Policy Advisor at the PM Glynn Institute, ACU and is the author of several papers for the Centre for Independent Studies including “Radical Conservatism: tradition as a guide to change” and monographs including Killer Kramer: Dame Leonie - a woman for all seasons and Abbott’s Right: the conservative tradition from Menzies to Abbott as well as the editor of numerous collections including Faith’s Place: democracy in a religious world.
Senator Andrew Bragg is a Senator for New South Wales with a particular interest in the history of the Liberal Party and Indigenous affairs, having written Buraadja: the liberal case for national reconciliation.
Julian Leeser MP has been the Federal Member for Berowra since 2016. He was formerly Shadow Attorney General and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs, and prior to entering parliament served as Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre. Julian is the first Jewish person elected to the House of Representatives from New South Wales for the Liberal Party.

Summer Series 2023-4 Part 4: Andrew Norton, Ted Ling & Michael de Percy

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2023 conference entitled ‘The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains 1954-1961’. This fourth episode features Andrew Norton’s paper ‘Menzies and Higher Education’, Ted Ling’s paper ‘Robert Menzies, Canberra’s Apostle’ (begins 23:35), and Michael de Percy’s paper ‘Australia in the Atomic Age: Menzies’s legacy and nuclear’s unrealised potential’ (begins 46:05).
Professor Andrew Norton is Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy at the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University. He was previously the Higher Education Program Director at the Grattan Institute. In the late 1990s he was higher education adviser to the then Minister for Education, Dr David Kemp.
Dr Ted Ling is a former employee of the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia. He has a personal interest in the former National Capital Development Commission established by the Menzies government in late 1957 to coordinate Canberra’s expansion and development. Ted is the author of the research guides on Government Records about the Australian Capital Territory, published in 2013 and the records relating to former Prime Minister Robert Menzies, published in 2021. Ted also has a PhD in Northern Territory history from Charles Darwin University in 2010.
Dr Michael de Percy FRSA FCILT is Senior Lecturer in Political 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 graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where he received the Royal Australian Artillery prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and Vice-Chair of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter, Vice President of the Telecommunications Association (TelSoc - Australia's oldest learned society), Public Policy Editor of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, and a member of the Australian Nuclear Association. He was appointed to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts in 2022.

Summer Series 2023-4 Part 3: Bob Bowker, Sean Jacobs & Elizabeth Buchanan

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2023 conference entitled ‘The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains 1954-1961’. This third episode features Bob Bowker’s paper ‘Menzies, Eisenhower and Suez’, Sean Jacob’s paper ‘Skilful handling: Menzies and the West New Guinea dispute’ (begins 29:25), and Elizabeth Buchanan’s paper ‘Menzies and the Antarctic Treaty’ (begins 42:44).
Dr Bob Bowker is the author of Australia, Menzies and Suez: Australian Policymaking on the Middle East Before, During and After the Suez Crisis. He is also the co-editor, with Matthew Jordan, of Australia and the Suez Crisis 1950-1957, an edited volume of 449 official documents outlining the Australian approach to and role in the crisis. Bob is a specialist on the Middle East and Islamic issues and a former Adjunct Professor of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at ANU. Prior to this, he served with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, undertaking five postings in the Middle East, including as Australian Ambassador to Jordan (1989-92) and as Australian Ambassador to Egypt (2005-08).
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.
Dr Elizabeth Buchanan is a 1st Sea Lord (1SL) Five Eyes Fellow for the Royal Navy. She is a Non-resident Fellow of the Modern War Institute at West Point Military Academy and an Adjunct Fellow of the Griffith Asia Institute. Dr Buchanan was a Lecturer of Strategic Studies with Deakin University at the Australian War College, Canberra. Her research interests include Arctic and Antarctic geopolitics, and her PhD thesis examined Russian Arctic strategy.

Summer Series 2023-4 Part 2: David Lee, Selwyn Cornish, & Paul Brown

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2023 conference entitled ‘The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains 1954-1961’. This second episode features David Lee’s paper ‘The Menzies Government and the Origins of Australia’s Open Economy, 1956-61’, Selwyn Cornish’s paper ‘RG Menzies and the Creation of the Reserve Bank of Australia’ (begins 16:44), and Paul Brown’s paper on ‘Alick Downer’s Immigration Program’ (begins 44:02).
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 Research School of Economics at the Australian National University, and the Official Historian of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Dr Paul Brown is a published author awarded a Bachelor of Arts (History Honours) at the University of NSW for a thesis on the Balfour Declaration and Palestine 1917 and a Doctorate from the University of Wollongong for his study of Alexander Downer’s Formative Family Policy Influences. He has also contributed to various publications including the chapter ‘The Progressive Conservatism of Alexander Downer’ in Greg Melleuish’s study Liberalism and Conservatism. He has also given papers at history conferences.