Afternoon Light

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.

Joining us this week on Afternoon Light to discuss his new book God and Menzies: The Faith that Shaped a Prime Minister and His Nation is Dr David-Furse Roberts . David is a Research Fellow at the Menzies Research Centre.

Margaret Fitzherbert, the CEO of the McKinnon Institute for Political Leadership , joins Afternoon Light this week to discuss the history of Australia’s Liberal women. The majority of the first women to sit in Australia’s various Parliaments were from the liberal or conservative movement. Sir Robert Menzies built the modern Liberal Party with the support of women and his electoral success was part...

Seventy years ago Australians were asked to give the Federal Government sweeping powers to ban communists and legislate on them, and by the narrowest of margins they voted ‘no’. Leading Australian constitutional lawyer, Professor George Williams , joins Afternoon Light to discuss the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party Referendum on 22 September 2021.

Prominent Australian economist, Henry Ergas AO, joins Afternoon Light to discuss the economic legacy of the Menzies era, a period of sustained economic growth where unemployment was virtually zero, home ownership expanded rapidly, and the middle class, the backbone of Menzies’s forgotten people, made up an ever-increasing proportion of Australian society.

Sean Jacobs is the author of a new biographical monograph on Neville Bonner, the first Indigenous member of Australia’s Federal Parliament. Neville Bonner was a truly remarkable Australian. Not only did he blaze a trail as the first Indigenous member of our Federal Parliament, but his life serves as a shining example of an individual overcoming tremendous disadvantage in order to make a real impac...

Stephen Loosley AM speaks about Australia in the leadup to the signing of ANZUS, particularly the contribution of Labor Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley, how ANZUS operates in the present day and what the future holds for the Alliance. Stephen Loosley AM is Deputy Chairman of Thales Australia, and Non-Resident Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the US Studies Centre...

As we continue our ANZUS podcast series on Afternoon Light, US foreign policy expert Professor Timothy Lynch talks about the changing geopolitics of ANZUS, from World War II, the Cold War, and the rise of China.

On 1 September 1951, Australia signed the ANZUS security pact with the United States and New Zealand. 70 years on, former Australian Defence Minister Dr Brendan Nelson shares his reflections on ANZUS, its legacy and its future.

Afternoon Light is the podcast of the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne. Each week your host, Georgina Downer, will discuss Sir Robert Menzies’s contemporary legacy with guests from Australia and around the world.