Afternoon Light

On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast of the Robert Menzies Institute, CEO Georgina Downer talks to co-curators of the RMI’s permanent exhibition David Kemp and Nick Cater . David and Nick explain that their curatorial purpose was to create an image of Menzies that Menzies himself would recognise, as opposed to the various projections which detractors and even supporters have attac...

This week’s episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast features a recording of the Robert Menzies Institute ’s O-week event in February with University of Melbourne’s Professor Joy Damousi speaking on the intricacies and impact of the WWI conscription debate. Joy is Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne, and an expert on the sociologi...

On this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Space Industry Association of Australia CEO James Brown about the Australian space industry. When Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, it was an Australian tracking station that relayed the pictures to the world. This remarkable fact was the product of an agreement signed by Robert Men...

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Keith Mason QC AC to discuss the Egon Kisch and Novak Djokovic cases. Australia has a long history of trying to keep out people and viewpoints deemed ‘undesirable’. The recent saga with Novak Djokovic is just the latest in a series of attempts by Australian Governments to exclude high prof...

This week on the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Sybil Nolan about the Menzies Collection. In 1976 Sir Robert Menzies bequeathed his library and archive of approximately 4000 items to the University of Melbourne. The collection is a unique historical and cultural artefact, showcasing the breadth of Menzies’s intellectual influences and acting as a so...

This week on the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Associate Professor William Sanders about Indigenous policy under the Menzies Government. When Robert Menzies was Prime Minister Indigenous policy was exclusively a matter for State Governments as set out in the Australian Constitution. This would change after the 1967 referendum, which Menzies was inst...

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to the Reserve Bank’s Official Historian, Selwyn Cornish , about the history of central banking in Australia. In 1960 the Menzies Government established the Reserve Bank of Australia, separating central banking from where it had evolved within the government-owned Commonwealth Bank. The first...

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light Podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Emeritus Professor Martyn Lyons about letters written to Robert Menzies. During his time as Prime Minister, Robert Menzies received thousands of letters from ordinary Australians. Many wrote asking for help, others wrote to congratulate him on various achievements, and still others wrote an...

In this first episode of the second season of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr Jane Connors about the 1954 Royal Tour. In 1954 Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia. The Royal Tour was a fascinating cultural phenomenon, mesmerising the entire nation for over a month. It is estimated that three-quarters of Austra...

In this sixth and final episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Scott Prasser on ‘The Learning Leader’ and Nick Cater on ‘Forgotten People to Quiet Australians’. Dr Scott Prasser gives a detailed analysis of the qualities which underpinned Menzies’s leadership, drawing on his own expertise in public policy and the workings of government. Prasser is an expert on public polic...

In this fifth episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Anne Henderson on ‘Preparation for War, the Trade Union Movement and Appeasement’ and Frank Bongiorno on ‘Curtin and Menzies’. Anne Henderson AM takes aim at writers who have criticised Menzies for being an ‘appeaser’ in the face of the rising threat of fascism in the late 1930s, contextualising his views so as to defeat...

In this fourth episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Dr David Furse-Roberts on ‘A Simple Presbyterian in Politics: Robert Menzies, Liberalism and Anti-Sectarianism’. Dr David Furse-Roberts examines how Menzies’s profound but somewhat enigmatic religious beliefs shaped his political views, and also how, remarkably for the time, Menzies was whole-heartedly opposed to sectar...

In this third episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you can hear Professor Gregory Melleuish on ‘The Idea of Education According to the Young Menzies, 1916-1945’ followed by Emeritus Professor Judith Brett on ‘Menzies's Debt to Deakinite Liberalism’. Professor Gregory Melleuish delivers a paper prepared with the help of Dr Stephen Chavura, which argues that Menzies saw the pivotal role of u...

In this second episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you can hear The Hon Justice James Edelman’s presentation on ‘Menzies and the Law’. Justice James Edelman examines Menzies’s brilliant legal career and relationship with the High Court, particularly his involvement in the Engineers Case and the overturning of legislation which attempted to ban the Communist Party Edelman was appointed to...

In this first episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you can hear The Hon Dr David Kemp’s presentation on ‘Menzies: Time for a Reappraisal?’, followed by Troy Bramston’s presentation on ‘Young Robert’. The Hon Dr David Kemp AC examines how the historiography surrounding Menzies has developed over the years, and argues that Menzies fought for a ‘politics of principle’ in which convictions wou...

In this week’s episode of the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to author and journalist Gideon Haigh about Doc Evatt and Robert Menzies. Herbert Vere Evatt and Robert Gordon Menzies led parallel and overlapping lives. Both were: born in 1894, from modest backgrounds, had brilliant minds, able to receive educational opportunities thanks to winning academic...

In this week’s episode of Afternoon Light, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to former Hawke Government Minister The Hon Barry Jones AC about his friend, Robert Gordon Menzies. Barry visited Menzies many time in his retirement after having sparked the interest of Dame Pattie for his appearances on the ‘Pick A Box’ gameshow. A strong supporter of the Labor Party who served that par...

This week on the Afternoon Light podcast Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer is joined by Dr James Waghorne to discuss the intricacies and eccentricities of the University of Melbourne at the turn of the century. James is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Higher Education and the University of Melbourne’s de facto historian. When Robert Menzies came to the University of...

This week on the Afternoon Light podcast, Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer speaks to Anne Henderson about Liberal trailblazer, Dame Margaret Guilfoyle. Anne is Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute and the author of many books including on Margaret Guilfoyle, Enid Lyons, Joseph Lyons, Mary Mackillop, Patrick Glynn and more. In 2014 she published Menzies at War, a detailed account of...

This week on Afternoon Light Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer is joined by Dr Ben Wilkie to discuss Sir Robert Menzies’s Scottish influences. While Menzies is often derided for being ‘British to the bootstraps’, there was a distinctively Scottish identity that was vitally important within his broader ‘Britishness’. Menzies was an admirer of Robert Burns, and celebrated Burns Night with...

This week on Afternoon Light Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer is joined by Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO to discuss Indigenous policy under the Menzies Government. From the forming of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal Studies, the 1962 legislative change to give Indigenous people the right to vote in Federal elections and the 1967 referendum, the Menzies legacy is significant. Warre...

In this week’s episode of Afternoon Light, academic and government adviser Dr Scott Prasser joins us to discuss his book ‘Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries in Australia’. Scott elaborates on some of the most important public inquiries from the Menzies era, how they directly shaped Menzies’s policymaking, and why Menzies was more selective in his use of them than many modern prime ministers. K...

29 October marks the 65th anniversary of the start of the Suez Conflict, during which Israeli, French and British troops attacked Egypt in an attempt to regain control of the Suez Canal which had been nationalised by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. It was in this complex and tense situation that Robert Menzies took on a central role on the global stage, acting as the leader of an internatio...

During the Menzies era Australian foreign aid spending achieved its highest ever average as a percentage of our GDP, while in 1959 Prime Minister Robert Menzies was able to boast that Australia had taken in more refugees per head of population than any other country in the world, a fact of which he was tremendously proud. Joining us to discuss these issues is the Reverend Tim Costello AO. Tim is o...

Joining us this week on Afternoon Light to discuss Menzies’s political beliefs is Dr Stephen Chavura , lecturer in history at Campion College. Steve has written a new book, with Professor Greg Melleuish from the University of Wollongong, The Forgotten Menzies . Steve and Greg unpack Menzies’s political philosophy in its own context and on its own terms, not as a liberal nor a conservative.