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Jim Walter, ‘Stay on message’ The Evolving Office of the Prime Minister

Can you imagine Australian politics without press advisers and spin doctors? The office of the prime minister has evolved immensely over the years. When Edmund Barton was our country’s first leader, he claimed to carry the entire records of the government in his briefcase. Nowadays, the office of the prime minister is a behemoth made up of numerous people, its growth being matched only by our ever-increasing expectations of what the federal government is supposed to do. Learn the how and the why of the development of the most important position in Australia.

Want to learn more? Read this parliamentary paper explaining the origins an evolution of the prime ministership

Want to hear more? Listen to Bridget Griffen-Foley talk about how PMs like Menzies have handled the media

Bonus fact:

Menzies was so close to his leading public servants that they were referred to as ‘the boys’. Sundays at The Lodge often involved boozy dinner parties with them.

Professor James Walter is Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. Professor Walter is a former Head of the School of Political and Social Inquiry (2006-2009), and a past President of the Australian Political Studies Association (2007-8). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (and served on the Academy’s Executive 2006-2009 and 2015-18), and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufactures (UK; 1991-2015). Prior to his appointment at Monash, he was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Arts) at Griffith University (1996-2002), and Professor of Australian Studies (1987-2002). He remains a Professor Emeritus at Griffith University. He was Professor and Head of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at the University of London, 1990-1993. Walter has published widely on Australian politics, history, biography and culture. Among his books are The Leader: a political biography of Gough Whitlam (1980), The Ministers’ Minders: personal advisers in national government (1986), Intellectual Movements and Australian Society (with Brian Head, 1988), Tunnel Vision: the failure of political imagination (1996), The Citizens’ Bargain: a documentary history of Australian views since 1890 (2002), No, prime minister: reclaiming politics from leaders (with Paul Strangio, 2007) What were they thinking? The politics of ideas in Australia (2010), Settling the Office: The Australian Prime Ministership from Federation to Reconstruction (with Paul Strangio and Paul ‘t Hart, 2016) and The Pivot of Power: Australian Prime Ministers and Political Leadership 1949-2016 (with Paul Strangio and Paul ‘t Hart, 2017).