Governing for the people

Robert Menzies saw government always as the servant of the people and never as their master. By David Furse-Roberts.

The liberal philosophy of Menzies instinctively informed his view on the proper role and scope of government in civil society. Mindful of its capacities but also its limitations, government for Menzies always represented a means to an end and never an end in itself. There was much that a government could do to advance the wellbeing of its citizens, but it was profoundly unrealistic to expect it to provide the ultimate remedy to all of society’s ills. Unlike the libertarian, Menzies did not regard government per se as an enemy of freedom but rejected the socialist view that the government itself represented the great source of freedom. In the British tradition of parliamentary democracy, Menzies saw government always as the servant of the people and never as their master. To invert this vital role of government, as the Nazi and Communist regimes had done in the twentieth century, would immediately open the door to dictatorship and the death of democracy. Accordingly, the destiny and fate of every government lay in the hands of the people who could elect it or dismiss it at will through the ballot box.

As well as being directly accountable to the people, Menzies saw the function of government as that of a machine, or utility instrument, to facilitate the peace, order and wellbeing of the country. He accepted that government had a legitimate role to raise taxes and distribute revenue, provide pensions and social security, organise defence, plan and execute public works such as the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, build infrastructure and public transport, provide education and health services, maintain civil order through the police and law enforcement agencies and to administer justice through the courts and judicial system.  In addition, governments could also give leadership and direction to a society and promote a degree of cohesion amongst its citizens. For all these indispensable functions of government, however, Menzies emphasised that the source of human creativity, imagination and energy and enterprise could be found not in the government but in the people to whom it was accountable. It was individual men and women themselves who possessed the inspiration and enterprise to raise families, run businesses, build communities and care for the poor and disadvantaged. The supreme task of government, therefore, was to provide the ideal climate and opportunities for individuals to flourish spiritually, intellectually, socially and economically. 

As to the citizens’ attitude towards the role of government, Menzies was eager to remind his fellow Australians of their government’s fiscal rights and responsibilities. The critical lesson Menzies was keen to impress on the people was that governments had no money of their own. Government could not be regarded as a free ‘cash cow’ from which citizens could derive entitlements for themselves, but rather as a treasury from which revenue was deposited from taxes to be then disbursed in public expenditure. The basic formula was that the sum of what all citizens received from the government could never exceed the sum of what all citizens contributed to the government in the first place. This was because the government, in itself, was no creator of wealth but rather an apparatus for the collection and distribution of existing national capital. For Menzies, the real creators and generators of wealth for the country were not governments but individuals and their free enterprises. The pathway to national prosperity therefore was not to increase government spending but to stimulate business growth and new employment opportunities for men and women to prosper. 

The aim of state intervention, therefore, was to equip individuals with the wherewithal to succeed and not to induce them with a sense of welfare dependency of self-entitlement.

With Menzies articulating his position on the role and scope of government, how did his own conception of government relate to that historically envisioned by liberalism? Given that Menzies envisaged a meaningful role for government in not only the fostering of private enterprise but also the amelioration of injustice, his creed of liberalism did differ from that of earlier figures such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo who preached laissez-faire economics. While obviously admiring the success of eighteenth-century classical liberalism in Britain for unleashing the enterprise and creativity of individuals, he was also mindful of its limitations. The classical liberals were right to stress that markets could accomplish things the state was incapable of doing, but were wrong to argue that the state could, and should, do nothing to alleviate the consequences of the market or interfere in the running of the workplace. For Menzies, prudent state intervention, particularly in the form of humane labour laws and welfare provision, did not negate the liberal principles of free-enterprise and self-reliance. Rather, it was part of a balanced liberal programme that was both just and workable. For the liberal project to be fully realised, it was critical for individuals to pursue enterprise and self-sufficiency, but at the same time it was necessary for the state to ensure that the optimum economic and social conditions existed for individuals to take the initiative to work and thrive. The aim of state intervention, therefore, was to equip individuals with the wherewithal to succeed and not to induce them with a sense of welfare dependency of self-entitlement.

While Menzies’ tradition of liberalism did allow for a moderate degree of state intervention, he was also mindful that assigning too great a role to government in society could imperil liberal principles. From his observation of State Socialism, he was aware that the existing rights for individuals to freely associate, speak, worship, assemble and partake in private enterprise could be impinged if the reach of government became too intrusive with policies such as bank nationalisation or compulsory unionism. As David Kemp appreciated, ‘Menzies believed that Government had an important role, but it was limited in what it could achieve because its services and laws inevitably imposed conformity where progress required diversity’.

Selected Menzies quotes on the role of government:

“I am no believer in encouraging the notion that the citizen is simply dependent upon the State. It is a notion which is out of harmony with the tradition of the resourceful and independent Australian people. It is infinitely better that the State should be dependent upon the citizen.”

Robert Menzies, Opening Speech, Camberwell Town Hall, 23 July 1943

“A good Government…should treat private business as our good friend. There should be less nonsense talked about ‘big business’ as if private enterprise meant a few huge companies or control by a few men. If you add the individuals together, the greatest employers in Australia are the small businesses, the farmer, the small factory, the local shopkeeper”

Robert Menzies, “The Liberal Leader Speaks: Employment”, Weekly Broadcast, 26 August 1949

“Governments do not exist merely to punish us for our errors, to threaten us with punishment in the future, to exercise rule over us whether it be harsh or gentle. Governments exist in a democracy first and foremost to give fire and character and direction to a country’s thinking”

Robert Menzies, Speech at Wesley Church, Melbourne, 4 September 1949

“To compare the mechanism of government, as if it were some sentient creature with the genius of the human being is absurd”

Robert Menzies, Young Liberal Movement Convention, Sydney, 27 July 1962

“The greatest function of a democratic government is to create a climate in which enterprise will flourish and productivity will increase, in which not only will human physical progress develop, but the human mind expand and the human spirit constantly revive”

Robert Menzies, ‘The Science and Art of Politics’, University of Texas Lectures (No 1), 20 November 1969

David Furse-Roberts is the editor of Menzies in his own words: A collection of quotes. You can purchase the book here