This necessarily limited his personal and political impact, especially when compared to his immediate predecessor Sir Robert Menzies, who was Prime Minister for a total of 18 years.

As Minister for Immigration ( 1949 – 1956 ), Holt was responsible for the relaxation of the White Australia policy and as Treasurer under Menzies he initiated major fiscal reforms including the establishment of the Reserve Bank of Australia and launched and guided the process to convert Australia to decimal currency.

In October 1941, the UAP was ousted by a no-confidence vote, the ALP leader John Curtin was invited to form a new government, and Menzies resigned as UAP leader.

He was appointed to the prestigious portfolios of Minister for Labour and National Service ( 1949 – 1958 ; he had previously served in this portfolio 1940 – 41 ) and Minister for Immigration ( 1949 – 1956 ), by which time he was being touted in the press as a " certain successor to Menzies and a potential Prime Minister ".

In 1956 he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and became Leader of the House, and from this point on he was generally acknowledged as Menzies ' heir apparent.

With Menzies ' support, Holt was elected leader of the Liberal Party, thus becoming Prime Minister.

The transfer of power from Menzies to Holt in February 1966 was smooth and unproblematic, and at the federal election later that year the electorate overwhelmingly endorsed Holt, giving the Holt-McEwen Coalition government a 41-seat majority, the largest in Australian history at the time.

Although all the preparatory work for the decimal changeover had been done while Menzies was Prime Minister, Holt had particular responsibility as Treasurer for currency matters, and he was centrally involved in both the decision to change and its implementation.

Throughout his reign as Liberal leader, Menzies had enforced strict party discipline but, once he was gone, dissension began to surface.

Support for his leadership was eroded even further by his refusal to sack the Minister for Air Peter Howson in order to defuse the scandal, fuelling criticism from within the party that Holt was " weak " and lacked Menzies ' ruthlessness.

Stewart Menzies, head of SIS, disliked the idea, which was promoted by former SOE men now in SIS.

Fadden was well regarded within conservative circles and proved to be a loyal deputy to Menzies in the difficult circumstances of 1941.

When Menzies was forced to resign as Prime Minister, the UAP was so bereft of leadership that Fadden briefly succeeded him ( despite the Country Party being the junior partner in the governing coalition ).

Fadden remained a loyal partner of Menzies, though he was still keen to assert the independence of his party.

His successful partnership with Menzies was one of the elements that sustained the coalition, which remained in office until 1972 ( Menzies himself retired in 1966 ).

This was the period of the Country Party's greatest power, as was demonstrated in 1962 when McEwen was able to insist that Menzies sack a Liberal Minister who claimed that Britain's entry into the European Economic Community was unlikely to severely impact on the Australian economy as a whole.

Menzies is regarded highly in Prime Ministerial opinion polls and is very highly regarded in Australian society for his tenures as Prime Minister.

In September 1939, Menzies found himself a wartime leader of a small nation of 7 million people that depended on Britain for defence against the looming threat of the Japanese Empire, with 100 million people, a very powerful military, and an aggressive foreign policy that looked south.

Prior to the takeover, Menzies ' larger Scottish stores ( carrying a very similar range of products to High Street W H Smith stores elsewhere ) dominated the market, and the latter's presence was minimal.

Calwell very nearly defeated Menzies at the 1961 federal election, owing to widespread discontent at Menzies's deflationary economic policies, as well as the unprecedented ( and temporary ) endorsement of the ALP by the usually pro-Liberal Sydney Morning Herald.

Unfortunately for Calwell, the war was initially very popular in Australia, and continued to be so after Menzies retired in 1966.

Menzies ' regiment was decimated during fighting in 1915, suffering very heavy casualties in the Second Battle of Ypres.

In a debate on a censure motion on 20 February, Menzies said the fact that McKell was actively engaged in politics when the appointment was announced ( even though he had since vacated the political stage ) was " a grave disqualification " which " strikes at the very foundation of the office of the Governor-Generalship, because that office in Australia should be as far removed from party politics as is the Crown itself in Great Britain ".

With incompetent direction and Talmadge's inexperience at a role requiring very demanding vocal acting, the film was a failure, in spite of the elaborate sets by William Cameron Menzies.

Menzies, who was known as a director with a very " dimensional " style ( e. g. many shots are focused in layers ).

Menzies regarded Couchman very highly and described " She would have been the best cabinet minister I could have wished for.

The ABOA spent the immediate post-war period engaged in a bitter controversy with the Chifley Labor government over its plans to nationalise the banking industry, and was instrumental in the election of the Menzies Liberal government in 1949.

Indeed, in the lead up to the 1949 federal election, Fadden played a key role in the defeat of the Chifley Labor government, frequently making inflammatory claims about the " socialist " nature of the Labor Party, which Menzies could then " clarify " or repudiate as he saw fit, thus appearing more " moderate ".

Menzies supported British policy against Hitler's Germany ( negotiate for peace, but prepare for war ) and – fearing Japanese intentions in the Pacific – established independent embassies in Tokyo and Washington in order to receive independent advice about developments.

Vargas confronts Menzies about the history of evidence " discovered " by Menzies or Quinlan.

Indeed, in the lead up to the 1949 federal election, Fadden often made inflammatory claims about the " socialist " nature of the Labor Party which Menzies could then " clarify " or repudiate as he saw fit, thus appearing more " moderate ".

He was also convinced ( wrongly, as primary sources afterwards revealed ) that Menzies had conspired with the security services to bring about the defection of a Soviet diplomat ( see Petrov Affair ), and, moreover, to do so with the specific purpose of discrediting Evatt.

* Gavin Menzies ' official website about his research on Zheng He

Colonel Charles Spry, head of ASIO at the time, when interviewed after his retirement, maintained that, although it had taken some months of negotiations to bring about Petrov's defection, he had not told Menzies about these negotiations and that the timing of the defection had no connection to the elections.

He is an advocate of social liberalism, and is on record opposing some of the reforms to his party brought about by Sir Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg.

Menzies ' claims and arguments about Antillia have not been recognized by professional historians.

The Menzies government was concerned about the long-term viability of the new industry and worried that it might be called on to bail out struggling stations and networks if the economy deteriorated.

One was Martin Sharp's ribald satirical poem about youths gatecrashing a party, entitled " The Word Flashed Around The Arms "; the other was the now famous Oz # 6 cover photograph ( pictured at right ), which depicted Neville and others pretending to urinate into a wall fountain created by sculptor Tom Bass, which was mounted in the street facade of the Sydney offices of the P & O shipping line and which had recently been unveiled by Prime Minister Menzies.

In 1960 Calwell became Labor leader and sought Mannix's support to bring about a reconciliation between Labor and the DLP, essential if the Menzies government was to be defeated.

The sketches included topical items about then Prime Minister Robert Menzies and the Voyager disaster ; Oz co-editor Richard Walsh provided an " Oz News " segment ; Gordon Chater performed his popular slapstick routine, in which he performed a comic monologue while covering himself with food then squirting the resulting mess off with a soda siphon ; there was also a serious interlude with a reading of a poem written by an Aboriginal woman.

Menzies was reelected almost as easily at the 1958 election, again with the help of preferences from what had become the Democratic Labor Party.

The Menzies government was able to exploit Labor's divisions over the Cold War and the American alliance, winning an increased majority at what would be Menzies ' last election, the 1963 election.

* In the TV series Rome, Brutus, portrayed by Tobias Menzies, is depicted as a young man torn between what he believes is right, and his loyalty and love of a man who has been like a father to him.

The former leader of the UK's Liberal Democrat party, Sir Menzies Campbell, had argued that the U. S. had not ratified the treaty primarily due to the influence of what he calls the " Irish lobby " – which, he said, is opposed to the treaty because it could make it easier for Britain to have alleged IRA terrorist suspects extradited from the U. S.

The book is written informally, as a series of vignettes of Menzies ' travels around the globe examining what he claims is evidence for his " 1421 hypothesis ", interspersed with speculation and description of the achievements of Admiral Zheng He's fleet.

He started Double Fine with programmers David Dixon ( Ocean of America, Capcom, LucasArts ) and Jonathan Menzies ( LucasArts ) in what was once a clog shop in San Francisco.