Melbourne Launch Of Menzies at War – Concluding Remarks

On Friday 18 July 2014, The Sydney Institute held a Melbourne launch of Anne Henderson’s Menzies at War. The function was hosted by law firm Arnold Bloch Liebler and the speakers were introduced by Mark Liebler AC. The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister launched the book and Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC offered concluding remarks. The papers which follow are edited transcripts of speeches given on the day.

MELBOURNE LAUNCH OF MENZIES AT WAR – CONCLUDING REMARKS

GEOFFREY BLAINEY

Mark Leibler, our host; Anne Henderson, our author; members of the Menzies family and honoured guests. This morning on the answering machine there was a message saying, “Could you help us? Josh Frydenberg has had to stay in Parliament and will be on a video link. Could you come in and if the electricity fails say a few words?” I must say my heart sank when I saw the electricity fail for just one minute, just a little while ago.

Thanks very much, Josh, in your striped tent in Canberra for speaking so lucidly about the political career of Sir Robert Menzies both in his first period of 1939-41 and his second, long period 1949-66. It’s remarkable when you look back on that second period. In 1949, most Australians did not have a telephone, they hoped to own a car, probably 40 per cent or 50 per cent had a fridge. They did not believe that a period of full employment would last. And yet they came to live in a period of prosperity and well being such as the country had not had before.

It’s interesting, too, to hear the comments that Mr Menzies was British to the bootstraps and in some ways he was. He didn’t go to Bali for his holidays, but it was in his period of prime ministership that that great period of transformation in Australian trade took place and East Asia replaced Britain as our main trading partner towards the end of his prime ministership.

He was really a remarkable man. I think one of the great virtues of this book, if I may say so, Anne, is that – Allan Martin whom I knew well wrote the two volume Robert Menzies: A Life and it’s an excellent book, it’s one of the best political biographies in Australia. But it’s the work of a political scientist. It’s the work of an historian. And whilst Sir Robert Menzies is present in every page, he does not breath, he does not come alive. And in this book, Anne, you’ve made him a living man, with all his emotions, his feelings, his pride, his enormous capacity – he was one of the most intelligent men in Australia in his time, beyond doubt.

Robert Menzies was probably the greatest orator of his time. I can remember at school in 1945 – and by chance I went to the same school [Wesley College] as Mr Menzies, as he was known – and he came to speak at an assembly. And it was an astonishing sight to see this powerful, strong figure with the big eyebrows, with the most remarkable voice. Not necessarily an Australian voice, nor an English voice, nor a Scottish voice, but the voice of a great actor. But at the same time, he wasn’t there acting, he was speaking from his mind and from his heart.

So here was this remarkable man who still does not get very good press from historians. When he stepped down, at his own time, in 1966, he had been Prime Minister for 30 per cent of the history of the Commonwealth.

And I think it’s great, Anne, that you’ve sat down, researched, brought Menzies to life, looked at his background, looked at those disastrous, perilous days of 1941, looked at the way he was reborn and came back a new man and in many ways changed the face of Australia. So I hope many people read the book, gain pleasure from it and I hope you continue to write.