Did you know that Captain Cook's Endeavour was originally a coal ship?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Denis Porter to explore the crucial role the coal industry has played throughout Australian history, from the earliest days of British settlement right up until the present. A story of triumph and tragedy, in which economic growth and political controversy have often gone hand in hand.

Denis Porter was CEO of the NSW Minerals Council (1998 to 2001) and a senior staff member of the Council and the NSW Coal Association (1989 to 1998). He was also Joint Executive Director of the Australian Coal Association (1998 to 2001). Denis had an ongoing association with the coal industry after he left the Council, for several years as a consultant, and also as a trustee director of the industry superannuation fund, Mine Super, and as a director of Mine Super Services. He is the author of the two-volume history Coal: The Australian Story.

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Does offering financial support for Prisoners of War risk incentivising surrender?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Christina Twomey, to discuss how the Australian government dealt with returned World War II POWs who had been deeply scarred by their time spent in captivity. Revealing the brutal realism of military commanders who feared that offering too much assistance might reward surrender. But more importantly, uncovering the stories of the soldiers themselves, who were forced to document their trauma in order to try to win support.

Christina Twomey is Professor of History at Monash University. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of war, with a particular interest in imprisonment and internment, gendered violence, trauma, Australia-Asia relations, humanitarian and aid programmes, and visual cultures of atrocity. Her most recent work focuses on Australia's Asian garrisons and regional engagement during the Cold War period. In 2018 she published The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia.

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What is the story behind the woman who appears on Australia's $50 note?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Hilary Silbert to uncover the remarkable life of Australia's first female parliamentarian, Edith Cowan. Who rose from the familial infamy of having a convicted murderer for a father, to become one of the most influential citizens in the history of Western Australia, and an inspiration to women across the nation.

Hilary Silbert was the inaugural Corporate Events Manager at the newly formed Edith Cowan University. An admirer of Cowan, Silbert has become an advocate for her memory and memorialisation, helping to organise the celebrations marking the centenary of her election to parliament in 2021. She is currently writing a full-length biography of Cowan, which will be the second ever to be published.

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30 years on from the election of the Howard Government, how does its extensive foreign policy legacy live up to scrutiny?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Alexander Downer and his biographer Tony Parkinson to discuss A Step to the Right, the new book on Australia's longest serving foreign minister. The man who oversaw one of the most eventful periods in Australian foreign policy, from the successful intervention in East Timor, to the response to 9/11, invocation of the ANZUS Treaty, and of course the controversies of the Iraq War.

Tony Parkinson is a former senior adviser to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, and Victorian Premier Dr Denis Napthine. He began his career in journalism, serving as The Age’s International Affairs Editor, The Australian’s European Correspondent, and national political editor of The Herald and Herald Sun in Melbourne. He has reported on elections in Australia, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Germany, and on conflicts in Northern Ireland, Fiji, and the Middle East — including the 1991 Gulf War and the liberation of Kuwait. Parkinson has also served as a consultant to the United Nations and the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, and held a senior government affairs role with one of Australia’s top 20 ASX-listed companies. In 2000, he published Jeff: The Rise and Fall of a Political Phenomenon (Viking/Penguin).

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Do those who denigrate Australia's past hurt Australia's present?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Tony Abbott to discuss his new book, Australia: A History. An antidote to the 'Black armband' view of our national story, which doesn't downplay the darker aspects of our past, but highlights the overwhelming good. A good we might expect to find if we appreciate the nation that we live in today, and want to understand how it came to be so that we may be better placed to preserve it.

Tony Abbott served as Australia's 28th prime minister and was the member for Warringah in the Australian parliament between 1994 and 2019. He is a Rhodes Scholar and the author of four books: The Minimal Monarchy, How to Win the Constitutional War, Battlelines, and most recently Australia: A History.

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Do Australians still agree on enough fundamental values to hold society together?

On this week’s Afternoon Light Georgina Downer speaks with Perter Kurti from the Centre for Independent Studies, to ponder how Australia's democratic and social cohesion can survive our increasing pluralism and historically high immigration rate. Exploring whether there remain enough common threads to bind us together as a nation.

Reverend Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author or editor of a number of books and has written extensively about issues of religion, liberty, and civil society in Australia. He appears frequently as a columnist and as a commentator on television and radio. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an ordained minister in the Anglican Church of Australia. In June of 2025 he released The ties that bind: Reconciling value pluralism and national identity.

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In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nations’. This seventh & final episode features Paul Brown's paper 'Sons of Empire: Menzies, Downer and their response to Britain joining the EEC', Andrew Kemp's paper 'A very different world: Robert Menzies, Harold Macmillan, and the end of Greater Britain', & Lucas McLennan's paper 'Menzies and Diefenbaker: Navigating the post-British World'.

Paul Brown is a published author awarded a Bachelor of Arts (History Honours) at the University of New South Wales for a thesis on the Balfour Declaration and Palestine 1917 and a Doctorate from the University of Wollongong for his study of Alexander Downer’s Formative Family Policy Influences. He has also contributed to various publications including the chapter ‘The Progressive Conservatism of Alexander Downer’ in Greg Melleuish’s study Liberalism and Conservatism and ‘Alick Downer’s Immigration Program’ in Zachary Gorman’s The Menzies Ascendency.

Andrew Kemp is a Melbourne-based writer and a former economist at the Commonwealth Treasury and the Department of Treasury and Finance in Victoria. He has written for the Australian Financial Review, contributed a chapter to Unity in Autonomy: A Federal History of the Founding of the Liberal Party, and recently launched an Australian history themed Substack titled ‘Australia Past and Present’.

Lucas McLennan works as a Senior History Teacher. He completed an Honours Degree in History and teaching qualifications at Monash University and recently completed a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne. His Masters thesis was on the Education policy of the first Anglican Bishop in Australia, William Grant Broughton, while his earlier Honours thesis examined Australia's compulsory military training schemes between Federation and the First World War. He has a strong interest in Australia's political, religious, and cultural history.

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In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2025 conference entitled ‘Menzies and the British Commonwealth of Nationa’. This sixth episode features Michael de Percy's paper 'God, King, and Country: British Identity and the Australian Defence Force', Greg Melleuish's paper 'Being British, Being Australian', & Peter Kurti's paper 'Beyond the Founder's Intentions: Menzies, the Commonwealth and Australian Pluralism'.

Michael de Percy FRSA FCILT MRSN is a political scientist, journalist, and political commentator based in Gunning, New South Wales. He is the Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent for The Spectator Australia and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Canberra School of Government at the University of Canberra. He was appointed to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts from 2022–2025. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon where he received the Brigadier Urquhart Trophy (Royal Australian Artillery Prize).

Greg Melleuish is Professorial Fellow of the Robert Menzies Institute. Before his recent retirement, he was a professor in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry at the University of Wollongong, where he taught, among other things, Australian politics. He has written widely on Australian political thought, including Cultural Liberalism in Australia (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and Despotic State or Free Individual (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014). He wrote The Forgotten Menzies (MUP, 2021) with Dr Stephen Chavura.

Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies and is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Law and Business at the University of Notre Dame Australia. He has written extensively about issues of religion, liberty, culture, and civil society in Australia, and appears frequently as a commentator on television and radio. In addition to having written many newspaper articles, he is also the author or editor of a number of books, including The Tyranny of Tolerance: Threats to Religious Liberty in Australia; Euthanasia: Seven Questions about Voluntary Assisted Dying; Sacred & Profane: Faith and Belief in a Secular Society; Beyond Belief: Rethinking the Voice to Parliament; and Beneath the Southern Cross: Looking for Australia in the 21st century. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an ordained minister in the Anglican Church of Australia.

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