Ming the Comparatively Merciful

On this day in 1966 Australia's longest-serving prime minister, Sir Robert (‘Ming’) Menzies, resigned.

His nickname came both from the traditional pronunciation (‘Mingis’) of his Scottish surname and from a movie serials character, Ming the Merciless (pictured below). His other common nickname was ‘Pig Iron Bob’, because he arranged for the sale of Australian pig iron (smelted but fairly raw metal) to Japanese corporations, not long before WWII, something the left-wing unions never let him live down as Japan invaded Australia, with the loss of many lives.

No one on any side of politics would disagree that Menzies was a conservative through and through (even his demeanour appeared British-aristocratic), and the Liberal Party that he founded and headed for decades was and still is a misnamed conservative party. However, there was some true democratic liberalism in the Libs originally, long before the party’s swing to the extreme right under PM John Howard in the late-1990s.

Michael Pusey, a prominent progressive Sydney sociologist (and, I believe, the one who introduced the term ‘economic rationalism’ to Australian political discourse) is on record as having praised Pig Iron Bob for what were in their day progressive social policies. It might be that the groan you hear is not Little Johnny Howard delivering a heartless speech against the tinted people of Oz and the world, but Ming the Comparatively Merciful rolling in his grave.

Love Ming or hate him, all agree that his sharpness of mind and wit was remarkable. When an interjector once called from the floor of a meeting, “Menzies, what are ya gunna do about 'ousing?!”, Menzies immediately retorted dryly, “To begin with, I’ll put an aitch on it”. As a boy, I heard him launch an election campaign in the Hornsby (Sydney suburb) Town Hall. A woman from the audience heckled him: “Menzies, you’re a dirty little prawn!”

The corpulent patrician paused for half a moment then carefully replied, “Madam … I must object to that word … little”.

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