Afternoon Light

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...

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 joine...

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 gre...

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...

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 ‘M...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 first episode features the keynote address delivered by Paul Kelly, Anne Henderson’s paper on ‘Menzies, Evatt, and the Labor Split’ (begins at 21:55), and Paul...

Arguably no figure in Australian political history was as divisive as NSW Premier Jack Lang. To admirers, he was the man who stood up to a conspiracy of the British banks to protect poor Australians during the Great Depression. To detractors, he was a man who eschewed the basic principles of economics and morality, and brought Australian democracy to the brink of destruction. Dismissed by the Gove...

Harold Holt is best remembered for his disappearance off Cheviot beach on 17 December 1967 – which has been the subject of conspiracy theories, documentaries, a docudrama, and these days even a meme page. Lost under all this sensationalism is that fact that he was a remarkable figure in Australian politics for many decades before the incident. A protege of Robert Menzies but a moderniser in his ow...

Although he came awfully close to winning the 1961 election, Arthur Calwell is generally remembered as one of the least successful Opposition Leaders of all time. He shares a distinction with H.V. Evatt in having lost three separate elections, and is often viewed as the last embodiment of old-style Labor politics before Gough Whitlam’s modernisation of the party. However, this depiction overlooks...

The Australian economy has long been reliant on the mining industry, so it is easy to forget that we once thought that our iron ore was a scarce resource which needed to be hoarded. It was only during the latter part of the Menzies era that pioneering businessmen realised that Australia had vast resources which could enrich both themselves and the nation. Originally entering the Australian market...

The horrific events of 7 October and the conflict that has since arisen have exposed deep divisions in Australian society. At a time when attitudes towards the state of Israel are the subject of fierce and often bitter debate, it is worth taking a moment to step back and reflect on how Australia’s relationship with Israel has evolved over the years. It is often forgotten that Australia played a ce...

President Kennedy famously met a tragic and untimely end. Yet, if it were not for a little-known Australian named Reg Evans, a young Lieutenant Kennedy may well have met an earlier and largely anonymous fate. Hear the fascinating story of an 80 year old rescue mission that forever changed both American politics and world history. And discover how this fateful moment acted as a snapshot of the burg...

There has never been a political rivalry in Australia quite like that between Robert Menzies and Herbert Evatt. Born in the same year, these two brilliant lawyers were on opposite sides of the Engineers’ Case and ended up on opposite sides of the House of Representatives. Evatt bested Menzies in the battle over the 1951 referendum, but there followed a political and arguably phycological implosion...

Of the first 10 women elected to the Federal Parliament, 8 were from the Liberal side of politics. One of the most talented and remarkable was Dame Annabelle Rankin, the daughter of a sugarcane farmer whose important organisational role in WW2 propelled her to prominence. When she entered the Senate in 1947, she was one of just 3 Coalition Senators in the entire chamber. She would go on to have a...

At the heart of Robert Menzies’s vision for Australia was the home. He believed that homeownership gave people a stake in the country, encouraged habits of thrift and forethought, and acted as the bedrock of patriotism. In his ‘Forgotten People’ radio address he went so far as to suggest that homes could be spiritually uplifting; giving people a sense of independence that facilitated them to act w...

Across Britain, Australia and like-minded nations, the centre-right of politics is in a state of flux. Thought leaders are at odds over how to deal with a societal shift towards big government and reliance on the state, epitomised by the uniformly illiberal responses to the pandemic – which were often implemented by supposedly centre-right governments. Likewise, there is much debate over the neces...

Australia has often viewed its universities as utilitarian enterprises whose primary function is to train professionals and boost the economy. However, Robert Menzies had a far grander vision for tertiary education, one which saw the university as essential to the health of a democracy. Menzies believed that a liberal education equipped people for a full life and the eternal search for truth that...

Robert Menzies is a towering figure in Australian history, and one who has come to define his side of politics. Yet, despite this, he has only received one full length biography in the last twenty years. How did Menzies come to reach his preeminent position? What can modern politicians learn from our longest serving leader, and how he mastered the arts of persuasion and leadership? And is he often...

Are you worried about the possibility of war? As the geopolitical situation becomes ever more tense, many commentators have described the onset of a new Cold War. If the threats faced by the Western World do indeed bear similarities to the ideologically bifurcated world of the 1950s, then it would be wise to look back over that troubled period for lessons for the present. Robert Menzies Institute...

Where to now for the Coalition? The aftermath of the 2022 federal election, and the advent of an era of big government which has swept much of the western world, has ushered in a period of soul searching for the Australian centre-right – but it is crucial to remember that this is not without precedent. The 1940s and 1980s were similarly wilderness years that ultimately acted as the springboard for...

Can you imagine Australian politics without press advisers and spin doctors? The office of the prime minister has evolved immensely over the years. When Edmund Barton was our country’s first leader, he claimed to carry the entire records of the government in his briefcase. Nowadays, the office of the prime minister is a behemoth made up of numerous people, its growth being matched only by our ever...