The Menzies Era by John Howard

Author:John Howard [Howard, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers

CHAPTER 15

NO LAP OF HONOUR

Self-satisfaction descended on the Liberal Party after its unexpectedly strong win in November 1963. The ‘old master’ had done it again. At its Federal Council meeting in Canberra in April 1964, which I attended as a member of the NSW delegation, there was an air of complacency. Menzies was as big a culprit as anyone, declaring, in his leader’s address, that the Coalition could be in office for ‘at least another decade’ – which, although a dangerous piece of hubris, did prove to be quite an accurate prediction.

At the age of almost twenty-five, this was my first encounter with the party organisation at a national level. It seemed dominated by Victorians. There was nothing wrong with that: not only did the leader and deputy leader, Harold Holt, come from that state, but Henry Bolte was also entering his tenth year as Liberal Premier of Victoria. And of course Victoria had remained true blue at the 1961 election when all else crumbled around it, thus saving the Menzies Government. That this had been due, overwhelmingly, to the DLP’s direction of preferences to the Coalition was acknowledged less frequently as time passed. The rationale became that it had largely been due to superior campaigning south of the border. The ‘jewel in the Liberal crown’ had never shone more brightly. Over the years I found a real division among Victorial Liberals in their attitudes to the DLP. Some, like Malcolm Fraser, knew how crucial the DLP had been to Menzies’ win in 1961, and were gracious enough to recognise it. Others, such as Dick Hamer (Bolte’s successor as premier) and Don Chipp (Liberal MP and later founder of the Australian Democrats), were clearly embarrassed by it and tended to shun the DLP, taking opportunities to put the party down.

I had my first and only opportunity to meet Sir Robert Menzies personally at this Federal Council meeting, during the traditional cocktail party at The Lodge, to which all council delegates were invited. He was a big man, who filled the room in every way. Talking to a group of Young Liberals (including me), he was every inch the party professional, thanking us for our efforts and emphasising just how important garnering the young vote had been to his victory in 1963. It was a brief and never-to-be-forgotten encounter.

During the council meeting the PM had laid the foundation stone of the Federal Secretariat building in Canberra, an American colonial-style structure I would see much of in the years to come. At this short ceremony, I witnessed a strange public stand-off between Menzies and Tom Playford, the long-serving Premier of South Australia. Menzies once called Playford a ‘holy terror’. They had a jarring relationship, although Menzies respected the way Playford fought for his state.

Rumours abounded as to why they were not on the best of terms. One of the more bizarre explanations, given to me by a South Australian Liberal at the time, was that Menzies had been guest at a ball in Adelaide at which Playford was patron.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.