On this day, 21 September 1940, Robert Menzies faces his first election as the leader of a parliamentary party and as Prime Minister. The wartime poll was a difficult one, as it had the potential to divide the country at a time when national unity was paramount. Such division could have been avoided had Labor accepted Menzies’s offer of an all-party National Government, as had been formed in Great Britain, but their refusal forced Menzies into an election campaign made all the more difficult by the loss of three Cabinet Ministers in the recent Canberra Air Disaster.

Menzies explained that: ‘It may at first sight seem to many of you that an election at a time like this, when bombs are falling on London and English blood is being shed in the English countryside, is unnecessary and even dangerous. That it has great disadvantages the Government does not deny. That it could, under some circumstances, impair the concentration of the Government upon the pressing administration of war is undoubtedly true, so true that my colleagues and I have decided that, whatever the political risks, our major attention, even during the period of the election campaign, must be devoted to our work as the administrators of your vital public affairs. As Prime Minister, I can conduct no such widespread campaign as Prime Ministers have been able to conduct in the past. My headquarters must be at the War Cabinet offices, and I cannot be absent from them for any lengthy period at a time… But I go further and tell you, and my colleagues will support me, that the administration of war calls for undisputed authority and a freshness and vigour of attack which are alike impossible without a new popular mandate, and a new and invigorated Parliament.’

It was the air disaster which precipitated a slightly early general election to avoid the necessity of a triple by-election. Robbed of some of its leading men, the United Australia Party was in a precarious position, and Menzies gave some thought to a private suggestion that he should launch a new ‘win the war’ party to face the new challenges that were quite distinct from the UAP’s origins in the Great Depression. However, Menzies’s commitments as a wartime leader were far too burdensome to invest the time required for party renewal, and so the UAP branding and organisation would be maintained for the poll, even if it was threatened by an overwhelming number of independents which served to split the non-Labor vote.

Calls for renewal were not limited to private correspondence, as the Sydney Morning Herald urged the Prime Minister to bring a new crop of ‘distinguished men’ into Cabinet ahead of the election where they could secure parliamentary seats. Menzies snapped at this suggestion as constitutionally improper, while lamenting that ‘I have repeatedly but vainly asked who these big men are, whose business has so far not persuaded them to go through the pains and discomfort of electoral campaigning in order to serve the people in Parliament’. This quixotic press campaign for new ‘outstanding candidates’ would do much harm to the UAP in New South Wales, and Menzies would ultimately blame it for the election outcome.

All three major parties would fight the election with a view to prioritising the prosecution of the war, with Labor abandoning its earlier opposition towards such policies as a National Register of manpower and the Empire Air Training Scheme. However, Labor differed from its Coalition opponents by insisting on introducing a major social welfare program concurrent with the war, even if that inevitably meant diverting financial resources away from it. This desire to pursue party legislation was one of the main reasons why Labor had rejected calls for a National Government, though they were also concerned of a potential party split as had been occasioned by the First World War. In the lead up to the election High Court Justice H.V. Evatt resigned his position in order to contest a seat for Labor, leading Menzies to complain about the precedent of politicising the judiciary.

Menzies delivered his policy speech in Camberwell on 3 September (the anniversary of the outbreak of conflict), beginning by attacking Labor for rejecting the National Government, inflicting partisan strife on the country, and for previously opposing the sending of Australian troops overseas to contribute to the Allied cause. He then outlined his government’s wartime objectives in five points:

‘1. We are determined to do everything that we can to keep Australia safe from attack, invasion, or conquest, by the maximum development of sea, air and land power.

2. We must, subject to and consistent with the proper discharge of that first duty, make such contributions as we can to the safety of our sister and neighbour Dominion, New Zealand.

3. We must, realising that we are not only politically but morally, spiritually and materially, an integral part of the great British family of nations, make the highest possible contribution to the war effort of Great Britain, the vital centre of that family, wherever and whenever that contribution can be made.

4. We must do all these things justly, realising that they demand a national effort, literally to the point of death or exhaustion, and that in a truly national effort each must bear his share of the burden fairly.

5. We must remember all the time that we are fighting, not for the spoils of victory, but for a better world in which a fair deal will not need to be called a new deal.’

Menzies depicted the war as a ‘crusade’ in religious terms, suggesting that ‘At a time like this the cry of tormented humanity goes up to the Almighty. We call on His name and we are sometimes tempted to ask Him to be on our side. But, as has truly been said, the question is not— “Is God on our side”— but is “Are we on His?” I solemnly declare my belief that we are. All things that our Faith stands for—quiet living and human kindness, the freedom of the soul, justice to our neighbours, the essential brotherhood of man, are today challenged and nothing less than our best can save them from eclipse.’

He boasted of the government’s record in producing an army of 130,000 men, introducing compulsory service, coming to grips with the problems of supply and equipment such that Australia was producing thousands of arms and munitions locally in a manner not thought possible a year earlier, the advent of local production of aircraft and also of a ship-building program. All the while employment levels had gone up and the average Australian was enjoying relative prosperity, albeit a prosperity based on wartime spending that would eventually have to be paid for.

Menzies’s hopes for a clear mandate that would allow the Government to prosecute the war to the fullest extent were dashed by a hung Parliament split 36 each way with two independents holding the balance of power. Menzies had been desperate to avoid playing politics in the midst of a war, but the result required more careful negotiation and ultimately distraction than ever. Arguably, it was Menzies’s prioritising of war issues like visiting Britain to lobby for reinforcements in the Asia-Pacific, over maintaining personal relationships both within his party and with the independents, that would see him lose office the next year.

Further Reading:

Robert Menzies, ‘Election Speech’, Camberwell, 2 September 1940, Election Speeches · Robert Menzies, 1940 · Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House (moadoph.gov.au) 

A.W. Martin, Robert Menzies, A Life: Volume 1 1894-1943 (Melbourne University Press, 1993).