Robert Menzies

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies was prime minister of Australia in 1939 to 1941 and from 1949 to 1966, making him Australia's longest serving national leader. In 1944, he helped to create the Liberal Party of Australia, and at the 1949 general election, became its first Prime Minister. He served until 1966, although the Liberal Party stayed in Government until 1972.

During his time in office, Australia forged close ties with United States of America, signed and ratified of ANZUS defense treaty along with New Zealand. His passion against Communism and the “domino theory” (Asian countries, start with Mao Zedong’s China, falling into communist trap) brought hundreds of thousands of Australian troops to Korea and Vietnam, working together with America, defending freedom in Asia. He also invited students from Malaya and Singapore (both under British influence and control) to study in Australia under the Colombo Plan, educating students to suppress communist insurgency ongoing throughout Asia through promotion of Western ideology and culture. He was described by Dwight Eisenhower as “finest level of statesmanship”.

To date, he is Australia's longest serving prime minister, followed by John Howard and Bob Hawke.

Australian Prime Ministers

Edmund Barton (1901)

Alfred Deakin (1903, 1905, and 1909)
John Watson (1904)
George Reid (1904)
Andrew Fisher (1908, 1910, and 1914)
Joseph Cook (1913)
William Hughes (1915)

| Stanley Bruce (1923)

James Scullin (1929)
Joseph Lyons (1932)
Earle Page (1939)
Robert Menzies (1939 and 1949)
Arthur Fadden (1941)
John Curtin (1941)

| Francis Forde (1945)

Joseph Chifley (1945)
Harold Holt (1966)
John McEwen (1967)
John Gorton (1968)
William McMahon (1971)
Gough Whitlam (1972)

| Malcolm Fraser (1975)

Robert Hawke (1983)
Paul Keating (1991)
John Howard (1996)
Kevin Rudd (2007)