Robert Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies (20 December 1894 – 14 May 1978), Australian politician, was the twelfth and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia serving eighteen and a half years. He had a rapid rise to power, but his first term as Prime Minister was a failure. He spent eight years in the wilderness before playing a crucial role in reshaping the Liberal Party and making a successful comeback, and he dominated Australian politics in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Second term as Prime Minister

One of Menzies's first moves was to cancel Chifley's intended bank nationalisation plans. The ALP retained control of the Senate, however, and made Menzies's life very difficult. In 1951 Menzies introduced legislation to ban the Communist Party, hoping that the Senate would reject it and give him an excuse for a double dissolution election, but Labor let the bill pass: it was later ruled unconstitutional by the High Court. But when the Senate rejected his banking bill, he called a double dissolution and won control of both Houses.

Related Topics:
1951 - Double dissolution - High Court

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Later in 1951 Menzies decided to hold a referendum to change the Constitution to permit him to ban the Communist Party. The new Labor leader, Dr H V Evatt, campaigned against the referendum on civil liberties grounds, and it was narrowly defeated. This was one of Menzies's few electoral miscalculations. He sent Australian troops to the Korean War and maintained a close alliance with the United States.

Related Topics:
Referendum - Dr H V Evatt - Korean War - United States

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Economic conditions, however, deteriorated, and Evatt was confident of winning the 1954 elections. Shortly before the elections, Menzies announced that a Soviet diplomat in Australia Vladimir Petrov, had defected, and that there was evidence of a Soviet spy ring in Australia, including members of Evatt's staff. This Cold War scare enabled Menzies to win the election. Labor accused Menzies of arranging Petrov's defection, but this has since been disproved. He had simply taken advantage of it.

Related Topics:
1954 - Vladimir Petrov - Cold War

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The aftermath of the 1954 election caused a split in the Labor Party, and Menzies was comfortably re-elected over Evatt in 1955 and 1958. By this time the post-war economic boom was in full swing, fuelled by massive immigration and the growth in housing and manufacturing that this produced. Prices for Australia's agricultural exports were also high, ensuring rising incomes. Labor's rather old-fashioned socialist rhetoric was no match for Menzies and his promise of stability and prosperity for all.

Related Topics:
1954 - 1955 - 1958

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Labor's new leader, Arthur Calwell, gave Menzies a scare after an ill-judged squeeze on credit -- an effort to restrain inflation -- caused a rise in unemployment. At the 1961 election Menzies was returned with a majority of only two seats. But Menzies was able to exploit Labor's divisions over the Cold War and the American alliance, and win an increased majority in 1963. An incident in which Calwell was photographed standing outside a South Canberra hotel whilst ALP members were determining policy inside at an ALP Federal conference also contributed to the 1963 victory. It led to an image of "36 faceless men" of the ALP federal executive deciding on ALP policy without the party leaders participating (the standard ALP practice at the time) that was again successfully taken advantage of by Menzies. This was the first "television election," and Menzies, although nearly 70, proved a master of the new medium. He was created a Knight of the Thistle in the same year.

Related Topics:
Arthur Calwell - 1961 - 1963 - Knight of the Thistle

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In 1965 Menzies made the fateful decision to commit Australian troops to the Vietnam War, and also to reintroduce conscription. These moves were initially popular, but quickly became a huge problem for his successors, Holt and Gorton. Despite his pragmatic acceptance of the new power balance in the Pacific after WWII and his strong support for the American alliance, he publicly professed continued admiration for links with Britain, exemplified by his admiration for Queen Elizabeth II, and famously described himself as "British to the bootstraps". In 1954 extraordinary crowds came to see and cheer her. Over the decade, Australia's ardour for Britain and the monarchy faded somewhat, but Menzies' had not. She toured again in 1963. At a function, Menzies quoted Elizabethan (Elizabeth I, that is) poet Barnabe Googe, "I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die."

Related Topics:
1965 - Vietnam War - Conscription - Queen Elizabeth II - 1954 - 1963 - Elizabeth I - Barnabe Googe

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