Afternoon Light

Alexander Downer: ‘A Sense of History’ Political Leadership in a Troubled World

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer about his personal recollections of Robert Menzies and his views on contemporary politics, with a particular emphasis on the troubled geopolitical landscape.

Troy Bramston: ‘That Sense of Stature About Them’ Comparing Menzies and Hawke

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to best-selling biographer Troy Bramston about the comparisons to be made between Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke, the longest serving prime ministers for each side of Australian politics.When it comes to political longevity, Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke are record-breakers who are frequently held up as leadership models for successors to emulate. But despite their competing political philosophies, Menzies and Hawke have far more in common than simply winning elections. Both were born in remote townships on either side of the Victoria-South Australian border, both came from families containing active politicians and had fathers who served as religious ministers, both were filled with talent, ambition and drive from an early age, and both were able to adapt and learn over their careers. In an Australia that seems to be yearning for enduring and successful leadership, there are many lessons to be learned from their stories, and they come out all the clearer through a discussion of Plutarch-style ‘parallel lives’.Troy Bramston is a senior writer and columnist with The Australian. He has interviewed politicians, presidents and prime ministers from multiple countries along with writers, actors, directors, producers and several pop-culture icons. He is an award-winning and best-selling author or editor of 11 books, including Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny, Paul Keating: The Big-Picture Leader and Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics. He also co-authored The Truth of the Palace Letters and The Dismissal with Paul Kelly.

William Stoltz: ‘Its work was so sensitive that Parliament shouldn’t be briefed on it’ ASIS at 70

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to our Visiting Fellow Dr William Stoltz about the history of the Australia Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), which recently celebrated the 70th anniversary of its foundation under the Menzies Government.You can read Dr Stoltz’s opinion piece on the creation of ASIS here.

Darius von Güttner: ‘Reaching Out to the Past and Choosing What They Want to Be’ The Ukraine Conflict and the Importance of History

In this week's episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Darius von Güttner, a historian of Eastern Central Europe from the University of Melbourne, about the ‘deep history’ that underpins the current conflict in the Ukraine.Vladimir Putin’s flagrant invasion of the Ukraine has famously been justified on the pretext of NATO expansionism, but it is also based on a historical fiction which seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the sovereign nation which is currently under attack. Putin has claimed that Ukraine ‘never had a tradition of genuine statehood’, deliberately trying to erase a national story that stretches back over one thousand years. Such is often the case with global conflicts; they almost invariably have historical underpinnings and they serve to demonstrate that historical memory is a contested domain with real world consequences. This issue is closely related to the purpose of the Robert Menzies Institute, which is part of a network of prime ministerial libraries dedicated to keeping alive Australia’s national story, a tale of peaceful liberal democracy that we hope will long continue. Dr Darius von Güttner is a Principal Research Fellow with the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. He is a historian of East Central Europe with broad interest in cultural aspects of the transmission of ideas across time and space. He is interested in global history and pursues interdisciplinary research and teaching subjects which examine history from a global perspective. Darius is the General Editor of Brepols publishing’s book series on “East Central Europe”. His publications cover diverse aspects of history from the Middle Ages to early modern and the modern eras.

James Paterson: ‘A Dramatic Wake Up Call’ Navigating Contemporary Geopolitical Threats

In this week’s episode of Afternoon Light, , Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer discusses the dangers posed by an increasingly assertive China and the outbreak of conflict in Eastern Europe with Australian Senator James Paterson.Australia’s degenerating relationship with China has dominated headlines for several years. As Australia seeks to uphold sovereignty and a rules based international order, we are increasingly exposed to economic coercion, cyber-attacks, and even acts of espionage and foreign interference. Dealing with these threats as a liberal democracy involves balancing security and freedom, and also working with like minded nations to ensure a coordinated and firm response. The new AUKUS agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States builds on Menzies’s ANZUS Treaty, and represents the most significant change to Australia’s strategic arrangements in decades. James Paterson is a Liberal Senator for Victoria. First elected in March 2016 at age 28, he is the youngest Liberal ever elected to the Senate. Senator Paterson is the Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, the deputy chair of the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19, and the former chair of the Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services and the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee. Senator Paterson is also the Australian co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Museums, Libraries and Galleries; co-patron of Liberal Friends of Israel; and deputy chair of the Modest Members Society – a group of Coalition MPs committed to championing free markets and economic freedom.

Peter Edwards: ‘One of the Greatest Examples of Australian Statecraft’ Australia’s Military Commitments Under Menzies

The Robert Menzies Institute recently hosted renowned military and diplomatic historian Peter Edwards for a talk entitled ‘From Korea to Vietnam: Menzies’s Cold War military commitments’. Prior to the event, Peter sat down with the Institute’s CEO Georgina Downer to talk through the complex issues involved in the defence of Australia during the Menzies era.It is natural and just that Australians should be drawn towards remembering and commemorating the Vietnam War, in which 521 Australian combat personnel lost their lives, as a defining moment in our history. However, this conflict has tended to overshadow the otherwise successful implementation of strategies of ‘graduated response’ and ‘forward defence’ which characterised defence policy during the Menzies era. The aim was to use targeted and small troop commitments to help snuff out conflict before it could reach Australia, assisting friendly governments resist insurgencies so that the ‘dominoes’ of the Asia-Pacific would not fall to international communism, whilst simultaneously keeping Australia’s ‘great and powerful friends’ engaged in the region. During the Malayan Emergency and the Indonesian Confrontation, carefully integrated military and diplomatic actions helped achieve outcomes that were favourable for Australia, and with the nation once again facing a troubled international landscape, there are crucial lessons to be drawn for the present.Peter Edwards AM is a writer, historian and biographer who has published extensively on Australian and international history and politics. He is the official historian and general editor of the nine-volume Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-75, including authoring volumes on strategy and diplomacy, Crises and Commitments (1992) and A Nation at War (1997). Peter won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and has been affiliated with numerous Australian and international universities, as well as receiving official appointments to work for organisations including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Australian War Memorial. Peter is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), a Fellow of the Australian Institute for International Affairs, and a former Trustee of Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance. A former editor of the Australian Journal of International Affairs, Peter is a longstanding member of the Research Committee of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and of historical advisory committees in the Department of Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Peter Kurti: ‘Raging Against the Past’ The Problem with Historical Cancellation

In this week's episode of Afternoon Light, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Peter Kurti about his recent report, ‘Raging against the past: guilt, justice, and the postcolonial reformation’. A response to the recent trend of tearing down or vandalising statues of historical figures, Peter’s report deals with an issue which poses important questions related to historical memory and the nature of a progressive society. Peter Kurti is the Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture at Charles Sturt University.

Thomas Wilkins: ‘Upholding a Rules-Based Order’ Australia-Japan Relations

On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Thomas Wilkins about the evolving nature of the Australia-Japan relationship.Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in International Security at the University of Sydney and Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Ian McAllister: ‘What Hasn’t Changed?’ The Evolution of Australian Elections since the Menzies Era

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Distinguished Professor Ian McAllister about the evolution of Australian elections since the Menzies era.Australian elections have long been characterised by the rather uncommon tradition of compulsory voting, but outside of this and other mainstays like a pencil and paper, much of the way elections are now conducted would have been unrecognisable in Menzies’s day. While Menzies fought for the ‘Forgotten People’, the middle class, the days of traditional class-based voting are largely gone – with asset holdings being more important than job classifications in determining who people vote for. The electorate now contains far fewer ‘rusted on’ voters, with people more likely to change who they vote for from election to election, or to vote for a different party in the Senate. These trends are partly a long-term product of the Menzies Government, with rising prosperity and high levels of tertiary education eroding class barriers. While Menzies was a strong leader who formed a lasting political party, leaders now campaign increasingly as presidents and parties are now as much brands as they are a collection of like-minded members.Ian McAllister is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at The Australian National University, and from 1997 until 2004 was Director of the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU. He has previously held chairs at the University of New South Wales and the University of Manchester and has held other academic appointments at The Queen's University of Belfast and the University of Strathclyde. He was President of the British Politics Group 2001-2002, edited the Australian Journal of Political Science from 2004 to 2010, and was chair of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project from 2003 to 2008.

Paul Morrissey: ‘Educating the Whole Person’ The Enduring Importance of a Liberal Approach to Education

On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Paul Morrissey, President of Campion College about a liberal education.Robert Menzies was a firm believer in the value of a broad liberal education. The Menzies Government reinvigorated and greatly expanded Australia’s university system through both the implementation of the Murray Report into Higher Education and the introduction of merit-based Commonwealth Scholarships, but Menzies insisted that this ground-breaking investment was not based on the mere utilitarianism of boosting the economy by training people for jobs. He wanted universities to create well rounded citizens who would serve and uphold Australia’s democracy, and he wanted to encourage a search for truth that viewed life’s purpose as something greater than felicific calculus.This fundamental question, ‘what is the purpose of a university education?’, remains highly relevant, particularly in an era where universities increasingly function as businesses and their budgets have been devastated by shrinking international student numbers. Paul is the President of Campion College where he also lectures in theology. Paul became president of Campion in 2015 after a career teaching theology and religious studies at university and high school. After completing his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Lateran University in Rome and his Doctorate at the Catholic Institute in Sydney, Paul taught systematic and moral theology at the University of Notre Dame for eight years. He has published numerous papers in New Blackfriars, Nova et Vetera, Logos and Solidarity.