Afternoon Light

Freedom, Empire, and the ‘Ordinary Australian’ | Josh Woodward

What does the 'ordinary Australian' actually mean? 
Josh Woodward talks to Georgina Downer about how the idea of the 'Ordinary Australian' confronts notions of Empire, as well as the concept of individual freedoms.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Popular Criticism of Menzies’ War Aims | Aaron Marston-Pattison

What was the public willing to support in wartime during Menzies's era? 
Aaron Marston-Pattison speaks to Georgina Downer about which aspects of Menzies's war aims the public was willing to support.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Remembering the Anglo-Australian Relationship of the 20th Century | Scarlett Wakelin

How do we look back on the Anglo-Australian relationship when we look at the history of Australia? 
Scarlett Wakelin speaks with Georgina Downer on the nature of the Anglo-Australian relationship that persisted through the 20th century.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute: https://give-aus.keela.co/christmas-m... 📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst Facebook: / robertmenziesinstitute TikTok: / robert.menzies.in Instagram: / robertmenziesinstitute

Menzies the Student, Menzies the Statesman | Nick Warren

How did Menzies' undergraduate career become reflected in the trials and accomplishments of his life as a statesman?
Nick Warren talks to Georgina Downer in this episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast, recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
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Summer Series 2024-5 Part 6: Will Stoltz, Sean Jacobs, David Furse-Roberts & Christopher Beer

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 sixth episode features Will Stoltz on 'Managed Decolonisation', Sean Jacob's paper 'Relaxed and Comfortable: Menzies and the fall of Empire (1961-66)' (begins at 19:15), David Furse-Robert's paper 'Homes Material, Homes Human and Homes Spiritual: The Menzies Government and Housing Policy' (begins at 35:25), and Christoper Beer's paper 'The frontier of property-owning democracy: Housing, the reform of Australian liberal urbanism, and electoral politics in Western Sydney, 1961-1966' (begins 54:45).
Will Stoltz is a security and foreign affairs scholar and former Australian national security official. He is a Lecturer & Expert Associate at the ANU's National Security College and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Menzies Institute, where he's researched the Menzies Government's foreign policy decisions and role in establishing the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.
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, and currently serves as a Griffith Asia Institute Industry Fellow.
David 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.
Christopher Beer is an academic whose research has spanned many aspects of Australian urbanism. He completed his doctoral studies at the Australian National University and subsequently held associations with the University of Canberra, Macquarie University, and the University of Newcastle.

Maya Khurana Redefines Australian Middle Class Identity

Was Menzies for class segregation, or was he a vehement opponent of the entire system? 
Maya Khurana talks to Georgina Downer about the Australian middle-class, and how Menzies drove significant change whilst challenging the notion of class at the same time.
This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series. ➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute by visiting our website.
📱 Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst / Facebook: robertmenziesinstitute / Instagram: robertmenziesinstitute
 

Orlando Throsby on Australia and NZ | Two Sides of the Same Sea

How did Australia's relationship with New Zealand come to define both countries histories, both between each other as well as their relations with neighboring Asia-Pacific countries? 
Orlando Throsby talks to Georgina Downer about the history of Australia and New Zealand's relationship with each other - as well as their neighbors. This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.
➡️ Support the Robert Menzies Institute by visiting our website.
📱Follow the Menzies Institute on Social Media: X: https://x.com/rmenziesinst /  Facebook: robertmenziesinstitute / Instagram: robertmenziesinstitute

Georgia Lowden on Policy Settings and Housing Booms | Lessons from Menzies

How much has the value of Australian home ownership changed between Menzies' era and our own? 
On a special edition of Afternoon Light, Georgina Downer talks to Georgia Lowden  This episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast was recorded as part of our Menzies Early Career Network Series.

Summer Series 2024-5 Part 5: Anne Henderson, Jennifer Clark, James Waghorne, Gwilym Croucher & Lyndon Megarrity

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 fifth episode features Anne Henderson on 'The Menzies Government, B A Santamaria and the Beginning of State Aid', Jennifer Clark's paper on 'Science and Science Education' (begins at 15:00), James Waghorne & Gwilym Croucher's paper 'University unlimited: Commonwealth Scholarships in Australian universities, 1951-1974' (begins at 40:40), and Lyndon Megarrity's paper 'Menzies and Liberal Education' (begins 59:45).
Anne Henderson is the Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute. She is a prolific and respected author having published books on Enid Lyons, Joseph Lyons, Mary Mackillop, Patrick Glynn and more. In 2014 she published Menzies at War, a detailedaccount of Menzies’s years in the political wilderness between his two stints as prime minister, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for History. In 2024 she published Menzies Versus Evatt: The Great Rivalry of Australian Politics.
Jennifer Clark is a historian from the University of Adelaide. She is the author of Aborigines and Activism: Race, Aborigines & the Coming of the Sixties to Australia and The American Idea of England, 1776-1840. Her current research interests coverpost war Australian history, including memorial culture, science education, automotive history and history pedagogy. She has published several articles relating to the Menzies era exploring science education, race and Australian American relations.
James Waghorne is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Higher Education and the University of Melbourne’s de facto historian. His work reaches across the history of university governance, university disciplines, the heritage ofuniversity campuses, and the changing influence of campus life and culture on the student experience. Additionally, he takes in the historical connections between universities and the state, industry and community groups. James is the co-author of Australian Universities: A History of Common Cause, Liberty: A History of Civil Liberties in Australia, and co-editor of The First World War, the Universities and the Professions in Australia, 1914–1936.
Gwilym Croucher is the Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. A former Fulbright Scholar, his research focuses on different aspects of the political economy of higher education. He has published widely on higher education policy and management and led large publicly funded research projects. He is also a regular media commentator on higher education in Australia.
Lyndon Megarrity is adjunct lecturer at James Cook University in Townsville, where he 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. Published in 2024, Megarrity’s latest book is the first biography of Dr Rex Patterson, Minister for Northern Development in the Whitlam Government.

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.