From the bottom of the sea to the moon: Menzies and Australia’s communications golden age

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The OTC NASA Satellite Earth Station at Carnarvon, Western Australia


On Sunday 23rd November 2024, I delivered my presentation on Menzies and Australia's communications golden age at the Robert Menzies Institute's Annual Conference. Fittingly, I delivered my presentation online via Zoom from Madrid. The recording of my presentation and the slides are available below.

Abstract

For someone who merely ‘endured’ television, Robert Menzies played a major role in Australia’s communications golden age. Ironically, Menzies oversaw a scientific and technological revolution during his tenure as prime minister that endures. Australia was not only connected with the rest of the world by cables under the sea, but the nation played a major role in landing humans on the moon, a feat of exploration yet to be surpassed. To his critics, Menzies was a ‘pompous, anachronistic, forelock-tugging Establishment figure, who held back the tide of Australia’s potential and denied the country its independent greatness’. But the historical record demonstrates that Menzies was interested in new technologies such as his 1940s personal 16mm home movie camera, and he was eager to support the United States in its quest to win the ‘space race’. Menzies oversaw Australia’s golden age of communication which included the coaxial cable link between Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne, the COMPAC cable that provided a telephone link to Britain and the Commonwealth, and Australia’s membership of the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium. Ultimately, Menzies’ legacy led to the launch of an Australian satellite from Woomera and helped save the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. Paul Keating, however, said that this period was ‘the golden age when Australia was injected with a near lethal dose of old-fogeyism by the conservative parties… when they put the country into neutral and where we gently ground to a halt in the nowhere land of the early 1980s’. Nothing could be further from the truth. The portrayal of Menzies (and the Coalition since) as ‘anti-science’ and ‘anti-future’ for political gain denies his rightful place in Australia’s advancement. This paper, then, traces Menzies role in the golden age of communications in Australia and his enduring legacy.

Slides

Madrid’s bullfighting triumphs over ‘eating ze bugs’

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Jose Tomas bullfighting in Barcelona


From Madrid: Madrid is better than Paris. That’s my advertising slogan for this great city. Instead of Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen should make a movie called Daylight in Madrid. Rather than showcasing Paris with the writer Hemingway, the bullfighter Belmonte, the artists Dali and Picasso, and the greatest filmmaker ever, Luis Buñuel, Woody Allen should showcase them all in Madrid where the world is real, and law and order keeps the dodgy people on their toes.

Writing in the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

Our Foreign Correspondent of sorts, Michael de Percy, is in Madrid. This anti-Woke destination has a rich culture of bullfighting rather than bug-eating. ‘Creating fake meat in laboratories or eating locusts is somehow deemed to be morally superior. But not in Madrid where the creation and consumption of food is an art form of the highest order.’ I am starting to suspect that Michael is on a food tour of Europe...

Writing in the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes had this to say:

Michael de Percy sees much that is manly and romantic in a Madrid bullfight, while most Anglo-Saxons see it as a barbaric and sadistic practice, where bulls are tormented and killed for entertainment. While he and I can never agree on bullfighting as a ‘sport’, his point about true Spanish culture as not being for the woke is a valid one. We’d just make the additional point, though, that Spain’s best days are centuries behind her, because long ago the Spain of los conquistadores became soft and decadent by the 18th century. And the current Spanish socialist government is more akin to that decline than the rugged manly virtues that de Percy admires and extols.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Madrid’s bullfighting triumphs over ‘eating ze bugs’.

Portugal’s national identity is forged through individual bravery, not identity politics

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Bacalhau (salted cod) is Portugal's national dish and part of its seafaring identity

From Lisbon: Portugal, a seafaring nation, pioneered the Age of Discovery and the exploration of the New World. Synonymous with this period is the individual bravery of the early navigators who battled tough conditions to explore beyond the Pillars of Hercules and to cross the Atlantic. Until recently, Portugal forged a national identity through individual ruggedness in the cod fishing industry in the North Atlantic, and not through the identity politics that is part and parcel of the European Union (EU).

Writing in the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

Speccie favourite Michael de Percy is on holiday in Portugal and has dropped a travel log for us about the state of identity politics in this part of the world with a proud and rich history. ‘Portugal is now another casualty of the EU and all the identity politics and economic hardships that entails…’

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Portugal’s national identity is forged through individual bravery, not identity politics.

Trump vs Albo the Unready, but what will Dutton do?

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Mr Dutton's support for censorship won't sit well with Mr Trump who campaigned for free speech

Donald Trump’s landslide election win is likely to give the Republicans a majority on every measure of electoral success with the House of Representatives only six members off a majority at the time of writing. Expecting the Democrats to win, the Albanese government failed to prepare for the Trump tsunami. The big question, however, is what will Mr Dutton do?

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Trump vs Albo the Unready, but what will Dutton do?

Trump’s win means we’ve narrowly avoided war

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President Donald Trump will be the 49th President of the US after a landslide victory.

There is little doubt that the US is the mightiest military power in human history. At a time when Australia’s ability to defend itself is at its lowest in one hundred years, we need the US, as our major ally, to retain its superpower status as a deterrent against foreign aggression.

With Trump’s return to the White House, we can rest easy that our enemies will think twice before acting. He will restore morale to the West and give other Western governments an opportunity to restore their faith in Western ideals.

Writing in the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

And finally, Michael de Percy who – credit where credit is due, was writing his election reaction moments after the result – says that from a national security perspective, Australia has narrowly avoided war with the Trump victory. Certainly, the world’s most powerful leaders are already making nods toward Trump. It’s clear that they take him more seriously than MSM.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Trump’s win means we’ve narrowly avoided war.

Australia’s Nuclear Future: Plan B for our energy needs

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Australia needs to remove the prohibition on nuclear energy before it is too late to catch up

Below are the slides and other details from my presentation entitled 'Australia’s Nuclear Future: Plan B for our energy needs', to the Rotary Club of Crookwell at the Crookwell Services Club on the 5th November 2024.

Through his research, Michael has developed a model to explain networked infrastructure deployment and how technological legacies influence the policy choices available in the future. Based on this model, he will address the challenges to nuclear energy in Australia originating with the antinuclear narrative and the role of the McClelland Royal Commission into British Nuclear Testing in reinforcing this narrative. Michael will then discuss the policy legacies created by the Howard Government’s prohibition of nuclear in 1998, and the policy and infrastructure legacies created by Energy Minister Chris Bowen. He will explain the necessity of a government-controlled nuclear reactor fleet, what that might look like, and the importance of a civilian nuclear industry to support AUKUS. Michael will conclude with a discussion of the absence of a "Plan B" for Australia's energy needs, and the results of renewables-only strategies internationally and what these might mean for Australia’s energy future.

 

References

De Percy, M.A. and Poljak, J. (2022, 5 May). Energy security: Embracing technological neutrality. The Interpreter. Lowy Institute.

De Percy, M.A. (2022, 14 November). Rewire the Nation or go nuclear? The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2023, 15 May). Where’s our energy Plan B, Chris Bowen? The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2023, 24 May). Labor’s coal-fired green dream. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2023, 23 August). Australia’s ideologically-driven energy crisis. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2023, 29 October). Coastal wind farms: This Sunday, the people say ‘no’ again. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 6 January). Bowen's homemade recipe for an energy debacle. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 20 February). If we're serious about net zero, we need to lift nuclear prohibition. The Canberra Times.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 2 July). No, Mr Bowen, community batteries are not a substitute for nuclear. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 23 September). Buyer beware as Bowen ‘models’ energy bills again. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 26 September). Bowen escapes energy scrutiny. Letters to the Editor, Australian Financial Review.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 14 October). Government shows its fear [on nuclear]. Letters to the Editor, Australian Financial Review.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 20 October). It will take more than hot air to fix Labor’s renewables woes. The Spectator Australia.

De Percy, M.A. (2024, 29 October). ACT energy policy faces federal pressure as renewables challenges mount. Energy News Bulletin.

De Percy, M.A. (2024). Australia in the Atomic Age: Menzies’s legacy and nuclear’s potential. In Z. Gorman (Ed.), The Menzies Ascendency: Fortune, Stability, Progress 1954–1961. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

Albo’s flight upgrade saga reflects self-entitlement culture

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I am constantly reminded how the 2020s recall F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920s Jazz Age.

Airport lounges are excluded from Fringe Benefits Tax legislation, and the Chairman’s Lounge is an elite perk that most Australians will never get to experience. Flight upgrades that are gifted to politicians, under current rules, are not an issue if these are declared. But soliciting for benefits such as upgrades for private travel is clearly in breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct established by the Prime Minister in 2022.

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