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Gregory Melleuish: ‘The Idea of Education According to the Young Menzies, 1916-1945’ and Judith Brett: ‘Menzies’s Debt to Deakinite Liberalism’

In this third episode of the Afternoon Light Summer Series you will hear from Professor Gregory Melleuish on ‘The Idea of Education According to the Young Menzies, 1916-1945’ and Emeritus Professor Judith Brett on ‘Menzies’s Debt to Deakinite Liberalism’.

Professor Gregory Melleuish delivers a paper prepared with the help of Dr Stephen Chavura, which argues that Menzies saw the pivotal role of universities as the new ‘church’ which could promote higher principles and goals, overcoming the fundamental threat posed by materialism.

Melleuish is a Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, where he teaches, among other things, Australian politics. He has written widely on Australian political thought, including Cultural Liberalism in Australia (1995) and Despotic State or Free Individual (2014), and is considered one of the leading experts on Australian liberalism and conservatism. He co-wrote The Forgotten Menzies (2021) with Steven Chavura and has also published peer-reviewed journal articles discussing Menzies.

Judith Brett examines the extent to which Menzies’s style of governance was inspired by Australian Prime Minister and Federation campaigner Alfred Deakin, who was an advocate of a ‘new liberalism’ based on a positive and socially ameliorative role for the state.

Brett is an Emeritus Professor at La Trobe University, where she used to teach and research Australian Politics, Political Biography, and Political History. A former editor of Meanjin and columnist for The Age, she won the National Biography Award in 2018 for The Enigmatic Mr Deakin. She is the author of four Quarterly Essays: Relaxed and Comfortable, Exit Right, Fair Share and The Coal Curse. She has published widely on Menzies and the history of Australian liberalism, with her book Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People winning the Ernest Scott Prize (1992-1993), the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award (1993) and the NSW Premier’s Literary Award (1993).