This is the policy speech delivered by the Liberal Party Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, for the 1963 Federal Election.

Menzies was seeking re-election to a seventh consecutive term. His Liberal-Country Party coalition government had been elected in 1949 and re-elected in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1958 and 1961.

It was to be Menzies’s last election. Following a comfortable victory, he served as prime minister for another two years before retiring on Australia Day, 1966.

This is the Liberal Party policy speech by Robert Menzies for the 1949 Federal Election.

It was delivered on November 10, 1949.

Menzies defeated the ALP under Ben Chifley and ended eight years of Labor government that had begun in 1941 when Menzies was forced to resign as prime minister and the Fadden government was defeated in the House of Representatives.

Menzies formed the Liberal Party from the remnants of the United Australia Party and a disparate group of community organisations. He was defeated in the 1946 Federal Election.

The election was held on December 10, 1949. It was a pivotal year that is now seen as a demarcation line between pre- and post-war politics. The House of Representatives was increased in size from 75 members to 121. The Liberal-Country Party coalition won 74 seats to the ALP’s 47. The coalition won 51% of the two-party-preferred vote.