Robert Gordon Menzies and education in Australia

Abstract

On the evening of 28 November 1957 the prime minister, Robert Gordon Menzies, presented the report of the Murray Committee of Enquiry to the federal parliament. Menzies saw this as one of the high points of his political career. He spoke of the 'official and personal pleasure' he was experiencing for it was a 'rather special night' in his political life. Looking back thirteen years later he was still moved by the occasion. It evoked deep emotions which were 'unforgettable'. Menzies had more to say about education than any other Australian prime minister, and throughout his political life maintained a consistent outlook towards schooling and education in general, firmly based on British academic and scholarly traditions. The universities were the focus of his interest. They gave him his faith in the value and efficacy of education. Of the many speeches he made on educational topics the great majority concerned the universities, in which he believed lay the salvation of the nation. This article looks at the educational outlook of Menzies and examines his influence on educational decisions made at the federal level during his long period as prime minister. Menzies was a scholarship boy, a fact of which he was proud. He saw that the school system had been his own road to success. He was the son of hard-working parents who taught him to believe in the value of schooling. They provided the opportunities and he seized them. He told parliament in 1958 —