“Mussolini as a great and patriotic Italian marched on Rome with all his Blackshirts”
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Robert Menzies
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was an Australian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th prime minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966. He held office as the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) in his first term, and subsequently as the inaugural leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in his second. He was the member of parliament (MP) for the Victorian division of K…
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politics · Prime Minister of Australia (1939–1941; 1949–1966) · politician · diplomat · lawyer · preface author · also Robert Menzies, Sir Robert Menzies, Robert Gordon Menzies, The Right Honourable Sir Robert Menzies, Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, Menzies
Born 20 December 1894 · Died 15 May 1978 · Q214438
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2026· 2 entries
U.S. News & World Report: Robert Menzies
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2019· 1 entry
Troy Bramston, a journalist for The Australian and a political historian, wrote the first biography of Menzies since Martin's two volumes, titled Robert Menzies: The Art of Politics
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2016· 1 entry
Menzies was portrayed by Alan Dearth in the A Place to Call Home episode "Home to Roost"
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2012· 1 entry
A life-sized bronze statue of Menzies was erected on the R
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2009· 1 entry
During the Australia Day celebrations, the R
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1994· 1 entry
The year of the centenary of Menzies's birth, the Menzies Research Centre was created as an independent public policy think tank associated with the Liberal Party
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1991· 1 entry
The Menzies family appointed A
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1984· 1 entry
The Australian Electoral Commission proclaimed at a redistribution on 14 September 1984, the Division of Menzies for representation in the Australian House of Representatives in honour of the former prime minister
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1978· 3 entries
Died 1978-05-15.
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“I would like to thank all those present—and those who are no longer present.”
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With a screenprinted poster, Pig Iron Bob / Dead at last, designed by Chips Mackinolty from the Earthworks Poster Collective
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1976· 1 entry
Awarded Knight of the Order of Australia (1976).
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1973· 1 entry
Menzies was awarded Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, Grand Cordon, First Class (other Australian prime ministers to be awarded this honour were Edmund Barton, John McEwen, Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam)
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1971· 1 entry
Menzies suffered a severe stroke and was permanently paralysed on one side of his body for the remainder of his life
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1969· 1 entry
Awarded Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (1969).
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1965· 3 entries
Awarded honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (1965).
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Career landmark: Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports (1965–1978).
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The Menzies government took the decision to end open discrimination against married women in the public service, by allowing them to become permanent public servants, and allowing female officers who were already permane
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1963· 1 entry
Menzies was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT), the order being chosen in recognition of his Scottish heritage
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1961· 2 entries
The Matrimonial Causes Act introduced a uniform divorce law across Australia, provided funding for marriage counselling services and made allowances for a specified period of separation as sufficient grounds for a divorc
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A Parliamentary Committee was established to investigate and report to the Parliament on Aboriginal voting rights, and in 1962, Menzies's Commonwealth Electoral Act provided that all Indigenous Australians should have th
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1960· 1 entry
The Menzies government introduced a new pharmaceutical benefits scheme, which expanded the range of prescribed medicines subsidised by the government
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1958· 1 entry
Awarded Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1958).
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1957· 1 entry
The Menzies government established the National Capital Development Commission as independent statutory authority charged with overseeing the planning and development of Canberra
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1956· 2 entries
A daughter, Roberta, named after Menzies, was born in 1956.
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A committee headed by Sir Keith Murray was established to inquire into the financial plight of Australia's universities, and Menzies's pumped funds into the sector under conditions which preserved the autonomy of univers
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1955· 1 entry
In which Menzies was a defender of the White Australia policy:
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1954· 1 entry
A heckler shouted, "I wouldn't vote for you if you were the Archangel Gabriel" – to which Menzies coolly replied, "If I were the Archangel Gabriel, I'm afraid you wouldn't be in my constituency
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1951· 4 entries
To cover fees and pay a generous means-tested allowance for promising students from lower socioeconomic groups
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“based on the utmost good will, the utmost good faith and unqualified friendship”
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Menzies decided to hold a referendum on the question of changing the Constitution to permit the parliament to make laws in respect of Communists and Communism where he said this was necessary for the security of the Comm
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The top marginal tax rate for incomes above £10,000 (equivalent to $487,272
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1950· 3 entries
External Affairs Minister Percy Spender instigated the Colombo Plan, under which students from Asian countries were admitted to study at Australian universities, then in 1957, non-Europeans with 15 years' residence in Au
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Menzies was awarded the Legion of Merit (Chief Commander) by US president Harry S
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To ban the Australian Communist Party, hoping that the Senate would reject it and give him a trigger for a double dissolution election, but Labor let the bill pass
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1949· 5 entries
Election won: 1949 election campaign.
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Career landmark: Prime Minister of Australia (1949–1966).
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Immigration Minister Harold Holt decided to allow 800 non-European war refugees to remain in Australia, and Japanese war brides to be admitted to Australia
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Campaign: 1949 election campaign.
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Parliament legislated to ensure that all Aboriginal ex-servicemen should have the right to vote
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1948· 1 entry
To extend commonwealth wartime powers to control rents and prices
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1947· 1 entry
Chifley announced that he intended to nationalise Australia's private banks, arousing intense middle-class opposition which Menzies successfully exploited
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1942· 1 entry
Had received the first honorary degree of Doctor of Laws of Melbourne University
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1939· 5 entries
Career landmark: Treasurer of Australia (1939–1940).
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Described it as "a stream of mud through which I have waded at every campaign in which I have participated"
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Resigned from the Cabinet in protest at postponement of the national insurance scheme and insufficient expenditure on defence
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Career landmark: Prime Minister of Australia (1939–1941).
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Career landmark: Minister for Defence (1939–1941).
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1938· 4 entries
When the official policy of the Australian government, supported by the Opposition, was strong support for Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement
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Menzies wrote that the "abandonment by the Germans of individual liberty
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As part of the Dalfram dispute, he was ridiculed as Pig Iron Bob, the result of an industrial conflict with the Waterside Workers' Federation of Australia whose members had refused to load Australian pig iron being sold
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“abandonment by the Germans of individual liberty ... has something rather magnificent about it”
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1937· 1 entry
Menzies was appointed a Privy Counsellor
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1935· 1 entry
But could not make up his mind whether Adolf Hitler was a "real German patriot" or a "mad swash-buckler"
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1934· 2 entries
Career landmark: Attorney-General for Australia (1934–1939).
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Career landmark: member of the Australian House of Representatives (1934–1966).
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1933· 1 entry
That "I hope that I may be associated with the protest of the meeting tonight against the barbaric and medieval persecution to which their fellow Jews in Europe are apparently being subjected"
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1932· 1 entry
Career landmark: Deputy Premier of Victoria (1932–1934).
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1929· 2 entries
Founded the Young Nationalists as his party's youth wing and was its first president
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Career landmark: Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1929–1934).
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1928· 2 entries
Career landmark: Member of the Victorian Legislative Council (1928–1929).
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Menzies entered state parliament as a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from East Yarra Province, representing the Nationalist Party
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1920· 1 entry
Menzies was an advocate for the Amalgamated Society of Engineers which eventually took its appeal to the High Court of Australia
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1916· 2 entries
Menzies was elected president of the Student Representatives' Council and editor of the Melbourne University Magazine
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With first-class honours in Law, Menzies was admitted to the Victorian Bar and to the High Court of Australia in 1918
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1913· 1 entry
Menzies entered the Melbourne Law School
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1909· 1 entry
Studied at Grenville College (1908–1909).
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1908· 1 entry
And 1909, Menzies attended Grenville College, a small private school in Ballarat Central
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1906· 1 entry
Menzies began attending the Humffray Street State School in Bakery Hill
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1902· 1 entry
Followed by his father in 1911, while another uncle, Sydney Sampson, was elected to the federal Australian House of Representatives in 1906
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1899· 1 entry
At the Jeparit State School, a single-teacher one-room school
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1894· 1 entry
Born 1894-12-20.
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