John Hawkins, ‘Prepared in a time of peace’ Menzies as Treasurer

The Treasury portfolio is generally considered the second most important ministerial position, behind only that of Prime Minister. However, despite the onerous nature and great responsibility of the posting, on several occasions the Prime Minister of the day has allocated themselves as Treasurer. This occurred with Joseph Lyons, whose government focused on combatting the devastating effects of the Great Depression, and it was also the case with Ben Chifley. However, it is often forgotten that when a Menzies Government was first sworn-in in April 1939, he too had taken on this double role. Though Menzies’s time as Treasurer was comparatively short, it was still crucial in preparing Australia for the Second World War. Even more notably, when Menzies handed the task off to Percy Spender in 1940, Australia would experiment with its first ever Keynesian budget.

Robert Menzies Institute CEO Georgina Downer talks to Dr John Hawkins from the University of Canberra, an expert on the history of Australian Treasurers.

Dr John Hawkins works in the Canberra School of Politics, Economics & Society at the University of Canberra. John currently mainly researches in Macroeconomics (especially central banking and monetary policy) and Australian political history and has taught in Introductory Economics, Quantitative Methods, International Political Economy, Public Sector Economics, Behavioural Science, International Business and International Relations. He has authored the Department of Treasury’s articles on both Robert Menzies, Percy Spender and Arthur Fadden.