The Menzies Ascendency Book Launch

Michael Kirby, Michael de Percy, and Paul Kelly at King and Wood Mallesons, Sydney

This week I attended the launch of the Robert Menzies Institute volume, The Menzies Ascendency Fortune, Stability, Progress 1954–1961, at a Sydney Institute event held at King and Wood Mallesons in Sydney. Zachary Gorman edited the volume, published by Melbourne University Press.

My chapter in the volume was on Menzies in the Atomic Age.

Australian legends, Michael Kirby and Paul Kelly, were the guest speakers.

I was able to ask a question about governments trying to establish a vision and how this gets in the way of them creating the conditions that enable individuals to thrive. The response is in the video below.

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

The OTC NASA Satellite Earth Station at Carnarvon, Western Australia

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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

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

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.

Portugal’s national identity is forged through individual bravery, not identity politics | Michael de Percy
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One thing that struck me is that despite the proud national culture forged in hard work and bravery, Portugal is now another casualty of the EU and all the… pic.twitter.com/H6GXRkkzti

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) November 17, 2024

My presentation at the Robert Menzies Institute's Annual Conference

My paper at the Robert Menzies Institute's Annual Conference 2023

The video recording of my presentation is available below:

The Menzies Ascendency: Australia in the Atomic Age

Keith Rigg (R) with Sir Robert Menzies signing a bat, circa 1950 [Rigg Family Album CC BY 3.0]

I will present my final paper for the Robert Menzies Institute's Third Annual Conference, 'The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and Consolidating Gains, 1954-1961' on Friday 24th November 2023. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the University of Canberra's  Faculty of Business, Government and Law Seminar Series in May 2023.

The slides and abstract from my final presentation are below, along with a podcast episode with Georgina Downer, CEO of the Robert Menzies Institute:

Abstract

Menzies embraced the atomic age rather more enthusiastically than many other Australians. He envisaged Australia’s substantial uranium and thorium reserves providing Australia with a source of clean, reliable, and affordable energy that would ultimately replace fossil fuels. But he also knew that “what is best advertised tends to be more popularly understood”. Despite the opening of a nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in 1958 to “test materials for their suitability in use in future power reactors”, the purpose of Australia’s first nuclear reactor was gradually reduced to producing medical radioisotopes and conducting research. Menzies faced similar concerns about the safety of nuclear reactors, the propensity for conflating nuclear industries with nuclear weapons, and storing nuclear waste to those concerns political leaders face today. But with Australia’s strategic defence capabilities enhanced by nuclear-powered submarines through the AUKUS agreement, and the absence of a ‘Plan B’ for a carbon-neutral future, the unrealised potential of Australia’s atomic age has manifested into the very lack of skills Menzies was concerned about in 1962. The Lucas Heights facility was more than just a case of hubris, or “what are they doing here that can't be better done elsewhere?” It provided opportunities for training Australian scientists and sharing and transferring nuclear-related research and knowledge. At the same time, recently declassified documents suggest that Menzies aimed to develop Australia’s nuclear capability amid eleven years of atomic weapons tests conducted by Britain in Australia. While much has been written about “nuclear colonialism” following the Royal Commission into the tests, very little attention has been given to the unrealised potential of Australia’s nuclear industry envisaged during the atomic age. This paper, then, traces the development and subsequent stagnation of the nuclear industry in Australia, with a focus on Menzies’ legacy and its influence on energy and defence policy today.

Australia in the Atomic Age: Menzies’ legacy and nuclear’s unrealised potential

High Flux Australian Reactor (HIFAR), Lucas Heights, opened in 1958.

Tomorrow I will present this work in progress for a paper for the Robert Menzies Institute's Third Annual Conference, 'The Menzies Ascendency: Implementing a Liberal Agenda and COnsolidating Gains, 1954-1961'.

The slides and abstract from my work-in-progress presentation are below. 

Slides

Abstract

Menzies embraced the atomic age rather more enthusiastically than many other Australians. He envisaged Australia’s substantial uranium and thorium reserves providing Australia with a source of clean, reliable, and affordable energy that would ultimately replace fossil fuels. But he also knew that “what is best advertised tends to be more popularly understood”. Despite the opening of a nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights in 1958 to “test materials for their suitability in use in future power reactors”, the purpose of Australia’s first nuclear reactor was gradually reduced to producing medical radioisotopes and conducting research. Menzies faced similar concerns about the safety of nuclear reactors, the propensity for conflating nuclear industries with nuclear weapons, and storing nuclear waste to those concerns political leaders face today. But with Australia’s strategic defence capabilities enhanced by nuclear-powered submarines through the AUKUS agreement, and the absence of a ‘Plan B’ for a carbon-neutral future, the unrealised potential of Australia’s atomic age has manifested into the very lack of skills Menzies was concerned about in 1962. The Lucas Heights facility was more than just a case of hubris, or “what are they doing here that can't be better done elsewhere?” It provided opportunities for training Australian scientists and sharing and transferring nuclear-related research and knowledge. At the same time, recently declassified documents suggest that Menzies aimed to develop Australia’s nuclear capability amid eleven years of atomic weapons tests conducted by Britain in Australia. While much has been written about “nuclear colonialism” following the Royal Commission into the tests, very little attention has been given to the unrealised potential of Australia’s nuclear industry envisaged during the atomic age. This paper, then, traces the development and subsequent stagnation of the nuclear industry in Australia, with a focus on Menzies’ legacy and its influence on energy and defence policy today.