The following is an edited transcript of a speech delivered by Josh Frydenberg to the Robert Menzies Institute.

Winston Churchill once said: ‘History will be very kind to me for I intend to write it.’

These are prophetic words.

If we don’t take responsibility for preserving and promoting the story of Menzies, his detractors will, blurring his legacy and the important lessons it provides.

This is why the creation of the Robert Menzies Institute is so important.

Its mission, is our mission: “To uphold and promote Sir Robert’s legacy and vision for Australia as a country of freedom, opportunity, enterprise, and individual dignity.”

The Robert Menzies Institute is now the sixth Prime Ministerial Research Centre in Australia.

It is truly fitting that the Robert Menzies Institute be located at the University of Melbourne.

Sir Robert had a profound connection to the University of Melbourne.

He first entered the Melbourne Law School in 1913, and was elected president of the SRC and editor of the Melbourne University Magazine.

In 1916 he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and in 1918 he completed his Master of Laws.

After Sir Robert fulfilled his service as our nation’s long serving Prime Minister, he returned in 1967 when he was appointed Chancellor of the University.

At the school of law, he learned more than the structures of the law.

He absorbed the intellectual foundations of modern and free societies: human dignity, mutual respect, personal responsibility, civic mindedness, responsible and accountable government.

He grasped the importance of enterprise, risk taking and reward for effort as the fuel that propelled the growth and prosperity of Australia.

Born of his experience at the University of Melbourne, he also understood the centrality of universities to the intellectual and moral core of nations.

As he said when accepting an honorary degree at Queen’s University Belfast in early April 1941: “The freeing of the mind from the inhibitions of ignorance, is one of those great moving forces that distinguish the civilised world from the uncivilized world.”

Later that same month, he was awarded an honorary degree at Bristol University.

These weren’t ordinary times. Bristol had been bombed, and life in Britain was hanging in the balance.

Menzies said: “Our city may lie in ruins, our university may have had its great hall destroyed, but the university goes on, not because the university is a building or a set of buildings, or even a body of graduates or undergraduates, but because the university is the home of that search for the truth which is part of the stuff that is the free spirit of man.”

Menzies’ actions were true to his beliefs.

After he returned to the Prime Ministership, that vision transformed Australia’s universities.

In his words, a university is a ‘a home of research, a trainer of a person’s character, a training ground for leaders … and is the custodian of mental liberty and the unfettered search for truth.’

These are the enduring things.

In January 1966, after a total of 18 years as Prime Minister, Sir Robert was asked in his final days as Prime Minister about his most lasting achievements.

He named three.

First, the creation of the Liberal Party.

Second, the establishment of the ANZUS Alliance.

Third the development and expansion of higher education in Australia.

Menzies’ civility, his values and his deep sense of conviction offer a roadmap for any modern day politician.

The society he wanted to live in was one that afforded dignity for all and both the freedom and the opportunity for each person to be the best they could be.

In my mind this is what liberalism is all about. It is powerful, it is good and it is right.

Menzies understood that politics should be a battle of ideas and not of warring personalities.

He was, by every measure, the most successful Australian politician in history. Yet, he didn’t equate civility with weakness.

He would say that his goal was not to destroy his opponents, but to defeat them.

He treated the public service with dignity and respect, always in search of, in the language of the day, the best man, not a ‘yes’ man.

He too was not afraid to share friendships across the aisle and defend them if challenged.

Once when he was in state politics, the Liberal Premier, Sir Stanley Argyle, tried to dissuade Menzies from becoming friends with Labor’s leader, John Cain, to which Menzies replied: ‘Mr Premier, I accept your direction in the affairs of government, but I take orders from no man on how I choose my personal friends.’

Later in his career, Menzies would enjoy a warm friendship with his Labor counterpart, John Curtin, a relationship that proved resilient even in the most testing of times.

Menzies and Curtin, and then Menzies and Chifley conducted hard fought campaigns. Yet, Menzies was a pallbearer at both of their funerals.

But it was Menzies’ conviction, his principles and his understanding of the power of the individual vis-a-vis the state that makes him the standard bearer for liberalism and our great party.

His vision was clear: ‘The individual and his encouragement and recognition is the prime motive force for the building of a better world.’

‘Governments’, he would say, ‘have their part to play. They may regulate, they may distribute, but they do not create, and, therefore, what happens to private enterprise is of vital importance to the people of Australia.’

It is the ‘salary earners, the shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers’ who were the ‘forgotten people’ at the heart of the economy and who with families were at the heart of the nation.

He was the champion of their cause, but importantly he asked for something in return.

Nearly two decades before president John F Kennedy would utter similar words, Menzies said in a radio broadcast in May 1942: ‘the great question is ‘How can I qualify my son to help society’ Not, as we have so frequently thought, ‘how can I qualify society to help my son.”

He wanted government to look more to the citizen, and the citizen to look less to government.

This was his guiding principle, and he would say, ‘If you stand on principle … you will never go far wrong.’

While the era during which Menzies governed was very different to the one we live in today, his values and principles have never been more relevant.

In the pursuit of his convictions he left a better, stronger and more secure nation behind.

In retirement, Sir Robert Menzies reflecting on his life in politics said ‘the whole world was in front of us, we had a continent to serve, a continent to lead, and a continent to inspire’.

More than half a century on, Sir Robert Menzies remains our inspiration.

And it is through the Robert Menzies Institute that the next generation of Australians will have the opportunity to learn more about the life and the legacy of one of the greatest Australians of all.

Josh Frydenberg is the federal Treasurer.

Originally published in The Australian, 19 November 2021.