Media Monsters deserves to stand among the giants of academic research and authorship on Australian media and political history.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Robert Menzies
Displaying 1 - 20 of 45 articles
Menzies created the Liberals from the rubble of its once successful but ultimately dysfunctional forebear, the UAP. It wasn’t the first time the centre-right reinvented itself. It could happen again.
There are lessons from history in how to hold the Liberal Party together – and it’s about more than just opposing everything the government does.
The partnership between the Liberal and National parties has a long and at times chequered history – but it has also had tremendous success in winning and holding government.
The former prime minister’s latest book calls on his party to be both liberal and conservative in order to survive.
Since the advent of the two-party preferred system, there have been two examples of parties governing effectively in minority, and with the support of independents.
Fears of the “communist menace” have long been used in Australian politics, but it is unclear who the market is for such a scare campaign today.
Facing protests by students and academics over its Liberal Party links and generous funding by the Morrison government, the centre’s most important test will be whether it respects academic freedom.
Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies insisted universities should have protection from political interference. But Bob Hawke’s education minister John Dawkins dismantled these protections.
The government’s higher education changes appear driven by three factors.
Many of Menzies’s ideas and values were old fashioned by the time he left office in 1966, but his legacy shapes the political debate in other ways.
Bob Santamaria knew four Australian prime ministers. Is he the most significant figure in Australian politics never to have held office?
Daughters of Robert Menzies and Arthur Calwell say parliament wasn’t always a “fort”
The Conversation, CC BY79.2 MB (download)
Last week, Michelle Grattan moderated a very special discussion with the daughters of Menzies and Calwell at Parliament House. This podcast episode is a recording of that event.
In 1960, Harold Holt, the then-treasurer, urged the government to abolish import restrictions, resulting in a minor recession. This nearly swung the election in the ALP’s favour.
Historians attribute the Coalition’s election victory in 1949 to issues like bank nationalisation and the Communist Party. But the decisive issue was petrol rationing.
Whether they form the next government or not, the Liberals need to reconsider their reliance on neoliberal economics, which may no longer be serving the party – or the country.
As it approaches the election, the government’s economic pitch on its
record is being linked to the argument that the Coalition is the best
manager in uncertain times.
It’s hard to fault Morrison’s first fortnight, if you can get past his description of events that tore down a PM as “that Muppet Show”, and swallow any cynicism about his careful choreography.
Their longest serving leader built the modern Liberal Party after its predecessor collapsed in 1941– but it took him eight years and defeat in two elections.
Turnbull brought a Menzian style to his leadership, but the world has changed quite a bit since Robert Menzies.
Top contributors
-
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
-
Associate Professor of History, UNSW Sydney
-
Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of Canberra
-
Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong
-
Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
-
Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Monash University
-
Professor Emeritus, School of Government and International Relations; Adjunct Professor, Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University
-
Emerita Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide
-
Associate professor and co-ordinator of professional development GRS, James Cook University
-
Teaching Associate, Monash University
-
Professor of Politics and Public Policy, The University of Queensland
-
Associate Director, Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
-
Senior Lecturer in History, Australian Catholic University
-
Professor of History, Griffith University, Griffith University
-
Tutor and PhD Researcher, The University of Queensland
