The Menzies Years !

Earlier this month the ABC ran a two part series on following Sunday nights which amounted to a presentation of the years in which Robert Menzies was prime minister of Australia.  The presenter was recent prime minister John Howard.

No doubt this pageant to Menzies caused anguish to the left of politics and had them grinding their teeth.  They claim that this was a period in Australia when "nothing happened "and it was a time of "lost opportunities ".

It was certainly a time when Australia had to face a new reality.  We had just seen the Japanese hordes sweep south and we had come close to an invasion.   The "populate or perish " theme was very real and we opened our doors to the Europeans fleeing both the war and the ever encroaching Red army digging in to rule liberated countries.

Unfortunately, we failed to heed the warning that was happening in South Africa where the apartheid regime was imposing minority white rule.  We endorsed the " White Australia " policy, and to our shame we failed to recognise our Indigenous people.  They were not counted in the census and they were not recognised as citizens.  Those that served in the Australian armed forces were refused entry to RSL clubs - and prevented from marching in victory parades.

This was a time of "housing "and jobs " !   We were receiving hundreds of thousands of "New Australians  " and the country was undergoing a building boom.   It was still a time of austerity but government money was pouring into vast projects like the Snowy Mountain Scheme and each of the states was building new infrastructure that soaked up the expanded work force available.

The Menzies era started in 1949 when then Labor prime minister Ben Chifley went to an election promising to nationalise the Australian banks.  This alarmed middle Australia and so long after the end of the war we were still experiencing petrol rationing.   The Liberals won in a landslide.

Menzies recognised that the balance of world power had changed and that the United Kingdom had passed both the military and the financial baton to the United States.  It made perfect sense when the ANZUS treaty came into being to ensure that if Australia and New Zealand were attacked, we would have the military support of the United States.

There was a brief hiccup when Egypt seized the Suez canal and Britain and France invaded to take it back.  America opposed this action and Australia unwisely backed the British and French.  This caused a rift that strained relations with America and for a time excluded us from defence information, but the ANZUS treaty survived.

Menzies came close to defeat several times during his sixteen year rule.  At the critical moment the first secretary of the Soviet embassy in Canberra defected, bringing on what became known as the "Petrov Affair ".  Petrov divulged details of Russian spying in Australia and his wife was rescued when she was being hustled back to Russia.   Menzies used this to generate his famous "Reds under the beds " electoral success.

The fact that Bob Menzies held office for a record sixteen years was mainly attributable to the confusion in the opposition Labor party.   Apart from inept leadership the movement split when those with Catholic leaning formed the Democratic Labor Party (DLP ) and ran in opposition at Federal elections.   This division of loyalties ensured that the Liberal/Country party coalition retained office.

The Menzies years may not have been exciting, but the "Steady as she goes " policy was just what the nation needed at that time.   We were recovering from a war and we were receiving a vast population increase.   It is a historic fact that we successfully settled a vast number of foreign nationalities, speaking many different languages into the homogenised Australia that exists today.

Hopefully, the period ahead will be similarly successful !