An attitude of mind and faith
Program Broadcast
Starts Sunday 1 April at 2pm, for four
weekly episodes in Hindsight
Listen to an audio highlight:
Former prime minister Robert Menzies once claimed that the basic philosophies of liberalism were immutable. Before him, one of the founding fathers of Australia, Alfred Deakin, was perhaps our first self-defining liberal and celebrated what he called liberalism's 'reconstructive elements'. But what has the legacy of a liberal tradition meant, in a tangible sense, in Australian political history? What kind of liberalism has been manifest in the Liberal side of politics in Australia?
The political scientist Marian Sawer has claimed that social liberalism in Australia translated into the idea of the 'fair go'. And if 19th century British social liberal philosophy has had some bearing on both major political parties in this country, what of the conservative liberal tradition in our political culture? Last year The Age newspaper ran a poll asking readers if they thought this current Liberal Party was still liberal. Over 80 per cent of those who voted answered in the negative.
This four part series charts the shifting nature of the liberal impulse inside the political party which has governed this country over the longest period – the Liberal Party of Australia.
Sunday 1 April at 2pm, repeated Thursday 5 April at 1pm
This first program in the series charts the period from Federation to the beginning of the Second World War. It explores the social liberalism of Alfred Deakin and the schisms between his Protectionist liberals and the ideals of his Free Trader political rival, George Reid. The program also examines the principles inherent in the Australian Settlement, those pillars of Australian society for the first eight decades of the 20th century: industry protection, wage arbitration, state paternalism, imperial benevolence and White Australia.
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Sunday 8 April at 2pm, repeated Thursday 12 April at 1pm
When Robert Menzies led the Liberal Party to power in 1949, he set into motion the period which would later be described as the Great Australian Liberal Revival. The new Liberal Party was driven by the energy and belief of 'the white collar men' – bank clerks and salesmen – and the women behind every church committee and voluntary organisation around the country. The name Liberal Party was a backwards nod to Alfred Deakin and his followers; Menzies was also trying to disassociate the new party from the reactionary and conservative image of its immediate forebears, the National and the United Australia parties. To understand the nature of the party's liberalism under Menzies' long leadership, it's necessary to place the belief systems and ideas which shaped policy and governance within the wider historical context of the period. [more]
Sunday 15 April at 2pm, repeated Thursday 19 April at 1pm
When the Liberal Party, led by Malcolm Fraser, won office in the election of December 1975, it faced the prospect of forming government in a climate of public hostility and division. The acrimony over the events of November that year – the dismissal of the Whitlam government – continued to resonate across the eight years that the Liberals were in power. This program reappraises those years and analyses the nature of the liberalism espoused in the policies and principles of the Fraser government. It also documents the rise of the new mantra of neo-liberal economic philosophy within the Liberal Party at this time, and the ideological division which emerged between the so-called dries and wets in the party.
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Sunday 22 April at 2pm, repeated Thursday 26 April at 1pm
When the Liberal Party won office in the 1996 federal election, under the leadership of John Howard, the moment signalled, for some, the reinvention of a new kind of liberal ideology and an electoral success which vindicated those who'd long argued that the party had to cast off the cobwebs of its past in order to differentiate itself from Labor. For others, the win in 1996 appeared to owe little to the party's liberal origins, and more to a new brand of political expediency. What could not be discounted was the fact that the Liberal Party had learned some lessons about politics, and the rapidly changing state of the world, during its 13 years on the Opposition benches. [more]
