Robert Menzies

Robert Gordon Menzies was born in Jeparit, Victoria, in 1894 and became a leading constitutional barrister. He entered state and then federal politics and became prime minister for the United Australia Party in 1939, resigning in 1941. In 1944-1945 he founded the Liberal Party of Australia, which won the 1949 election. He then governed for over sixteen years until retiring in 1966, a record for an Australian prime minister. He died in 1978. Before politics he made his name as counsel in the 1920 Engineers case, which expanded Commonwealth power in the High Court.

Supporters credit Menzies with long postwar prosperity, expanded university funding, the ANZUS alliance, the Colombo Plan, state aid to church schools and a large immigration program, and the Liberal Party regards him as its founder. Critics argue that his governments were complacent about economic reform, that his attempt to ban the Communist Party threatened civil liberties, and that he kept the White Australia policy. His decision to send combat troops to Vietnam in 1965 remains debated, as do his strong attachment to Britain and the monarchy. He remains the benchmark against which later Liberal leaders are often measured.