Reviewed by Ian Lipke
The Menzies Legacy is a stimulating book in that it considers the important question of Menzies’ place in the historical record. It interprets whether Menzies led Australia for over half the decade … [with a] reputation for stability and continuity … opposed to everything we commonly associate with the 1960s”.
He led an administration during a dynamic period marked by rising levels of homeownership, university education, opportunities for women, engagement with Asia, instantaneous communications, space exploration, international travel and trade. While these are positive features of any administration, they were accompanied by features every bit as negative. For example, these years saw the growth of bitter sectarian divisions, an evolving Australian identity, and even the introduction of a new currency. The world was transformed, with a presidential assassination, a clandestine war with Indonesia, the introduction of conscription and the commitment of a combat battalion to Vietnam.
Australia would never be the same, but was this because of or despite Menzies? All these questions are explored in the last of a four-volume history of Menzies and his world, based on conferences convened by the Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne.
Menzies was the sort of leader who could be described in terms of over-praise as Tony Abbott did on one famous occasion or the very opposite as John Howard bypassed him by proclaiming the virtues of Percy Spender, Richard Casey and John McEwan. These were all excellent administrators who carried out their duties with fine style.
Reading Gorman’s book forces one to make certain decisions about Menzies as a leader of men. One must take up the issue of leadership. To what extent was Menzies a leader or, do we call him such but allocate him to a place of his own? Did his leadership style warrant this?
One is tempted to argue that Menzies deserves every kudos we could give him – Zachary Gorman would agree, I am sure. Gorman’s quite brilliant introduction to his book is more than enough to satisfy most critics. However, always one has questions. Is it sufficient to be judged a policy consolidator rather than an innovator? How much weight needs be given to the judgment (presumably by a group of academics) that ranked his achievements behind those of John Curtin alone. That his style was not dictatorial is clear since much of his authority came from governing through cabinet.
While anyone who has read the newspaper will know of Menzies’ difficulties with the Suez Crisis, Malaya, even the ‘love affair’ with the Queen (not to mention the disastrous idea of banning the Communist party) but it takes a scholarly study of the likes of The Menzies Legacy to tell with authority the constructing of the ADF and Menzies’ influence in achieving this event. Furthermore, the legacy of the second Menzies prime ministership in the technical aspects of defence acquisitions has long been overlooked. Gorman addresses this shortcoming.
Apart from issues of defence, an area that is not intellectually abstruse, Gorman has laid out his views on a doctrine of managed decolonization. This immensely difficult set of ideas, in the hands of Gorman, are quickly understood.
Menzies’ legacy is vast. Although we know a lot about him, we do not know all. I wonder why, in Victoria only, women filled many of the official positions. And why would a leader, so strong in his British heritage turn over trading privileges to Japan while revoking trading rights with Britain?
The Menzies Legacy
(2026)
Edited by Zachary Gorman
MUP
ISBN:978-0-5228-8190-5
$50.00; 404pp