Launch Of Anne Henderson’s Menzies at War

The Hon Barry O’Farrell is the Member for Kur–ing–gai and a former Liberal premier of New South Wales. On Tuesday 1 July 2014 Barry O’Farrell addressed The Sydney Institute to launch Anne Henderson’s Menzies at War (NewSouth 2014). Barry O’Farrell reminded his audience of the many parallels between much contemporary politics and the years of the first Menzies governments from 1939-1941. As O’Farrell put it: “Who says history is dull!  This is a bit of a political thriller – even if the ending is known to us when we buy the book. For those who think that factionalism and personality politics are recent barnacles on our political system, this book will cause you to think again.”

LAUNCH OF ANNE HENDERSON’S MENZIES AT WAR

 BARRY O’FARRELL

Most people learn from their mistakes and failures – even politicians.  Some of us even get a second chance to prove the lessons were learned.

At the heart of Menzies at War, Anne Henderson provides an insight into how Australia’s most successful Federal MP set about learning the lessons of his first, short and unhappy period as Prime Minister.

But this book offers more than this tale of redemption.

It provides a skilfully researched and written – and compelling – account of an important decade in the nation’s history.  And, along the way, Anne Henderson demolishes a few myths, and theories of left wing historians, to boot.

Is it any wonder she and Gerard, and their intellectual rigour, are compared to Beatrice and Sidney Webb?

When you read this book, you’ll marvel at the parallels to be drawn with more recent political events and again understand the lessons that history can teach. For instance, Anne describes:

• the dysfunction of a minority government in a hung Federal Parliament;

• an aloof, some said arrogant, party leader who, while focussed on national and international issues, forgot the first lesson of politics: engage your team;

• the internal party white-anting of a Prime Minister and the jockeying of other leadership aspirants; and

• the betrayal of government – and of their own electorates – by conservative Independent MPs who opted to put Labor into power.

Who says history is dull!  This is a bit of a political thriller – even if the ending is known to us when we buy the book.

For those who think that factionalism and personality politics are recent barnacles on our political system, this book will cause you to think again.

It includes perhaps the most outrageous, public attack – motivated of course by personal malice – upon a Prime Minister by any factional leader in our history: Earle Page’s claim that Menzies lacked the “courage, loyalty and leadership” to be PM.

Page effectively called Menzies a coward for not serving in WW1. And he did so at a time when the wounds of that conflict still greatly affected families across the nation.   At a time when it was clear to most that the world would again soon be at war. And to underline his message, Page then took the Country Party out of the coalition, leaving Menzies with a minority government.

Compared to Earle Page, Don Farrell, Paul Howes and Mark Arbib were mere “pussies”. And speaking of warriors – consistent with the Henderson way – Anne doesn’t miss either as she shines a spotlight on the people and events described in Menzies at War.

With the benefit of the personal insights provided in Heather Henderson’s wonderful books on Menzies’ family life, Anne makes short work of Judith Brett’s “Freudian” claims of unresolved family conflict as the basis of Menzies character and political outlook.

In these days of selfies, talkback and Twitter, it’s hard to remember that politicians could once upon a time opt to keep their families out of the spotlight and even had time to consider their views before launching them upon an unsuspecting public.

Importantly for historical accuracy – and the reputation of Menzies’ first administration – Anne also rejects Stuart Macintyre’s claims that the United Australia Party failed to adequately equip Australia to meet the challenges of the coming second world war.

Using her detailed knowledge of the Lyons Government and the subsequent Menzies administration, Anne sets the record straight, pointing to Lyons and Menzies’ efforts to secure what today is Australia’s most important defence alliance; that with the United States of America.

Another of the book’s highlights is Henderson’s writing about the interaction between Churchill and Menzies during the latter’s ill-fated England trip in 1941.

Claims that Menzies spent a good part of his visit trailing his coat to try and supplant Churchill may have sold a few other books, but the lack of evidence for such a notion is again exposed here.

As are the more corrosive charges that Menzies and his first government didn’t do enough to champion to Churchill and the War Cabinet the defence needs of our region.

On his way to England in 1941, Menzies had stopped in Singapore and seen firsthand its lame defences and, in his diary, despaired of the ignorance of the generals about the looming threat they faced.  So it’s not surprising to learn he devoted much of his efforts in England trying to get Churchill to address this region’s defence needs.

Menzies even extended his stay in the hope of convincing Churchill of the merits of the case -in the process ignoring warnings that his continued absence would cost him politically at home. It’s true he wasn’t successful; but it wasn’t from lack of trying as Anne makes clear.

Also made clear by Anne is that Menzies was a man of his times.

Something evidenced in the pre-war period when, like Curtin and most other Australians, he was supportive of every effort to avoid a repeat of the 1914-18 killing fields or in the post war years when he pursued what Anne describes as a commitment to a “harmonious, safe and prosperous Australia”.

It should be obvious to all that, someone who from 1949 won seven elections in a row, was popular and in touch with the electorate.  But it’s apparently unclear to the left who continue to disparage Menzies and his achievements, representing him all too often as some sort of “imperial dinosaur”.

That’s hard to reconcile with a man whose government established the Colombo plan, introduced our first “no fault” divorce laws and provided access to university education for hundreds of thousands of Australians through the establishment of the Commonwealth Education Scholarships Scheme. A scheme, I should add, that benefitted many of his later critics.

Now I’d argue that Menzies subsequent successes and achievements came about as a result of the events Anne writes about in this book. A book that is, above all else, about rejection, reassessment and recovery.

It tells the story of Menzies’ resignation as Prime Minister – and the public and personal blow to ego and pride that accompanies such a decision. But it also describes how, after a couple of months of self-doubt and uncertainty, Menzies picked himself up and started on the second, more successful, stage of his federal career.

He reassessed his political beliefs and, through radio, set about communicating them to the public.

The use of commercial radio, and not the ABC, was regarded as clever and novel.  Perhaps it was the equivalent of Kevin Rudd’s use of social media in the lead up to 2007 election—although one suspects Menzies could use a radio broadcast and be far more direct than Kevin could be using just 140 characters.

Next Menzies took back his party – firstly regaining the leadership, followed by creating a new political party.

One of my former colleagues used to jest he’d never been a member of an organised political party – just the NSW Liberal Party.

But it is worth remembering that the structure Menzies put in place in 1944 has largely survived both the passage of time and the attempts of various power brokers to manipulate it.  It’s a structure that has delivered the Federal Liberal Party more years in power than in Opposition.

And then Menzies tackled the really hard part: winning elections.

But having lost his first as Liberal Leader in 1946 he wasn’t to look back and will remain an exception – if not an oddity – in Australian politics: a Prime Minister who chose his own time of leaving office.

Menzies has been a favourite of mine for a number of reasons. His resilience and persistence, as described in this book, was certainly a comfort as, along with others here, I worked through 16 years of Opposition in State parliament.

His philosophy of course resonated, but so too his pragmatism.  Menzies’ reported to have once said, “It must be great to be an ideologue – it saves time thinking!” He believed that, as circumstances changed, so too should your approach to an issue. He was not about applying yesterday’s fix to tomorrow’s problem.

Like him I firmly embraced the view that the Liberal Party should represent those who weren’t organised, those without a voice – those ignored and unrepresented by the unions and big business – Menzies’ famous “forgotten people”.

But above all I remain attracted to Menzies because his is a great Australian success story – a reminder of the opportunities on offer in this country.

The boy from the small country town who, through dint of scholarship and hard work, ends up a leader of the Victorian Bar, spends six years in State Parliament becoming Deputy Premier, before beginning a Federal career that would span 32 years and see him become our longest serving Prime Minister.

Winston Churchill said that, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”  And he did, with prodigious effort – and results. Menzies wrote too little. But people like Alan Martin, Heather Henderson and others have helped fill the void.

So too, in this volume, has Anne Henderson. This is a book that fills in some blanks, corrects the errors of others – but also importantly reminds us of the real character and genius of Robert Gordon Menzies.