The Forgotten Podcasts

The Robert Menzies speech that defines postwar Australia – and eight others from his broadcast series – have been re-created for the MRC by actor Peter Cousens. Story by Fred Pawle.

“Quite recently, a Bishop wrote a letter to a great daily newspaper…”

As far as opening sentences go, this one probably seemed, at the time it was broadcast, likely to be forgotten pretty quickly. The superfluous opening adverb, the unnamed clergyman and his daily newspaper, and the cranky, reactionary tone should have condemned it to the dustbin.

But history has conspired to imbue it with enduring gravitas. As the opening line of Robert Menzies’ “Forgotten People” speech, it sets the scene that not only captured Australia at a particularly intense moment – May 22, 1942 – but helped define it for decades to come.

The speech was delivered on radio less than three months after Japanese forces had taken Singapore, imprisoning 15,000 Australian troops (a quarter of the nation’s overseas soldiers); and less than two months after Japanese fighter planes had bombed Darwin, killing up to 300 people and sinking seven ships.

Further attacks were possible and an invasion was, although unlikely, feared by some. Yet here was former prime minister Menzies talking about a petulant debate in a newspaper. 

Menzies’ speech quickly proceeded to its topic, which also happened to be its audience. Menzies was addressing the middle class – the “salary earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers and so on” – about the sort of nation they wanted once the war was over, the sort of nation the middle class would be called upon to build.

That this middle class could also be relied upon to, in the meantime, provide the majority of the fighting forces to help defeat Japan in the Pacific and Germany in Europe was assumed. Elsewhere in the series of speeches, of which the “Forgotten People” is the apotheosis, Menzies says, “we are a fighting people, and we derive from one”, and notes that an “absence of fear” gave Australia “dignity and strength”.

These two key objectives – winning a brutal war and building a better nation – contrast starkly with the victimhood and dependency that underpins much of political debate these days, especially Labor’s desperately generous policies and divisive electoral rhetoric.

Likewise, Menzies’ opening line about a debate conducted under the polite rules of newspaper correspondence reminds one of the civility and cultural unity that prevailed until the arrival of social media. Menzies would be alarmed by the coarseness of debate these days but also encouraged by its robustness. To quote from another of his broadcasts, on freedom of speech: “It is a poorly formed and weakly held belief which cannot resist the onset of another man's critical mind.” Or to put it another way, opponents of centre-right liberal politics might be loud, but they are hardly formidable. 

It was an honour and a privilege to be part of these recordings, by Peter Cousens, who last year performed the “Forgotten People” twice in front of live audiences of Liberal Party faithful.

I can assure you every sentence was recorded more than once. Cousens repeated each one until we were both satisfied we had captured not only Menzies’ style but also the mood of the era. The recording was done by sound engineer Adam Connelly, who also edited the speeches to give them an authentic sound, and both former prime minister John Howard and radio announcer Alan Jones were delighted to add introductions.

As Mr Howard says, the “great genius” of the speeches is their simple articulation of Menzies’ philosophy. They are a “reminder to the current generation of political participants of just how important clear and direct communication is.”

Financial assistance was generously provided by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust. Menzies himself was a keen supporter of the trust when it was founded in 1954. We are enormously grateful for their help, without which the project could not have proceeded.

We hope you enjoy these nine speeches from this magnificent series.