In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2024 conference entitled ‘The Final Chapter: Purpose, Endurance and Legacy 1961-66 and Beyond’. This sixth episode features Will Stoltz on ‘Managed Decolonisation’, Sean Jacob’s paper ‘Relaxed and Comfortable: Menzies and the fall of Empire (1961-66)’ (begins at 19:15), David Furse-Robert’s paper ‘Homes Material, Homes Human and Homes Spiritual: The Menzies Government and Housing Policy’ (begins at 35:25), and Christoper Beer’s paper ‘The frontier of property-owning democracy: Housing, the reform of Australian liberal urbanism, and electoral politics in Western Sydney, 1961-1966’ (begins 54:45).

Will Stoltz is a security and foreign affairs scholar and former Australian national security official. He is a Lecturer & Expert Associate at the ANU’s National Security College and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Menzies Institute, where he’s researched the Menzies Government’s foreign policy decisions and role in establishing the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

Sean Jacobs is a Port Moresby-born Australian writer, government relations and policy specialist. He has worked with all levels of government in PNG, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. He currently works in local government in Australia. Sean is the author of three books, and has published with the Diplomatic Courier, International Affairs Review, Small Wars Journal, The Spectator and the Australian Institute of International Affairs. He is a graduate of Griffith and Macquarie Universities, and currently serves as a Griffith Asia Institute Industry Fellow.

David is a Research Fellow at the Menzies Research Centre. He holds a PhD in history from the University of NSW and is the editor of Howard: The Art of Persuasion (2018) and Menzies: The Forgotten Speeches (2017). Since joining the MRC in 2016, he has written for Quadrant, Spectator Australia, and other publications on the history and contemporary relevance of liberalism in Australia. In 2021 he published God and Menzies: The Faith that Shaped a Prime Minister and his Nation.

Christopher Beer is an academic whose research has spanned many aspects of Australian urbanism. He completed his doctoral studies at the Australian National University and subsequently held associations with the University of Canberra, Macquarie University, and the University of Newcastle.