Georgina Downer, Greg Craven, Zachary Gorman and Tom Switzer gathered at the CIS offices to launch the book, “The Menzies Watershed: Liberalism, Anti-communism, Continuities 1943–1954“. The Menzies Watershed is the second in a four-volume history of Menzies, released by Melbourne University Press.
Too many students know too little about Australia’s history. As Greg reminisced, “when I taught constitutional legal history at university, I used to start with a lecture which was a quiz. I would say, ‘who was Lachlan Macquarie?’ and of a group of 100 kids there would be four who would know.”
This book aims to inform the reader about eleven of the most pivotal years in Australian political history, the years between the 1943 and the 1954 elections. This was a period of intense political, policy and strategic transition, which saw a popular Labor Government and its state-led vision for post-war reconstruction toppled by Robert Menzies and his newly formed political machine, the Liberal Party of Australia. Meanwhile, a backdrop of rising Cold War tensions came to dominate domestic and international policymaking, ushering in a divisive communist party ban, the ANZUS treaty, the Colombo Plan, and Australia’s own agency of international espionage, ASIS. But what was the difference in practical terms between Menzies and his predecessors? What role was the state to play under a centre-right government, and would Menzies be able to live up to the liberal ideals with which he had won over the Australian public?