Menzies Research Centre

The Menzies Research Centre is an Australian public policy think tank. It is named for Sir Robert Menzies, Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, and was founded in the centenary year of his birth, 1994.

The Centre "works to promote the principles of individual liberty, free speech, competitive enterprise, limited government and democracy".^[1] It is associated with, but independent of, the Liberal Party of Australia, of which Menzies was the founder, and which spans liberal and conservative thinking. The Centre publishes books and monographs, and organises conferences and seminars throughout the year.^[2]

The Centre is supported financially by corporate and private sponsors and (along with other partisan think tanks) the federal Department of Finance and Regulation, who provided $229,105to the organisation in 2013.^[3] Their website displays logos of some of their principal corporate sponsors.

Its activities include:

• consultations and other processes for debating and developing public policy, such as a policy development of the New Colombo Plan,^[4][5] and roundtables on productivity^[6] and many other topics
• the annual John Howard Lecture, given each year by a distinguished international figure (e.g. British Foreign Secretary William Hague in 2013),^[7] and
• publications such as, in 2013, State of the Nation: aspects of Australian public policy (edited by Professor Don Markwell, Rachael Thompson & Julian Leeser), with critiques of Australian public policy since 2007 by 15 non-partisan experts.^[8]

The Directors of the Centre are:

• Tom Harley – Chair
• Andrew Abercrombie
• Hon Ian Campbell
• Paul Espie
• May Wan Khor
• Anthony McLellan
• Hon Andrew Robb MP and
• Hon Alan Stockdale.

Former Chairs have been:

• David S. Clarke AO 1995-98

• Hon Andrew Robb MP 1998-2004

• Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP 2002-04

Executive Directors of the Menzies Research Centre have been:

• Michael L'Estrange AO 1995-97

• Hon Dr Marlene Goldsmith 1998-2000

• John Roskam 2001-02

• Jason Briant 2003-05

• Julian Leeser 2006-12

• Professor Don Markwell, 2012-13

• Nick Cater, 2014 - present.

The work of the Menzies Research Centre is assisted by an Academic Advisory Council, including Associate Professor Hazel Bateman, Dr Amanda Bell, Professor Ross Babbage, Professor Jeff Bennett, Professor Geoffrey Brennan, Professor John Carroll, Professor Henry Ergas, Dr David Gow, Professor Ian Harper, Dr David Kemp, Professor Phil Lewis, Professor Ian McAllister, Associate Professor Gregory Melleuish, Dr Alex Robson, and Dr Jeremy Shearmur.^[9]

References

External links

• Official website