Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has refused to back away from his description of Sir Robert Menzies as a \u201cNazi appeaser\u201d,\u00a0insisting his comments were supported by the historical record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The senior Labor minister triggered a political dispute after using the term during a speech at the National Press Club.<\/p>\n
He argued Labor had a stronger record on national security and defence than its political opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Opposition figures demanded Mr Conroy withdraw the remark, arguing it was an attack on the founder of the Liberal Party and a distortion of history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But speaking on Friday, Mr Conroy made clear he would not be retracting his comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, you can\u2019t argue with history,” he told Nine\u2019s Today.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s a letter from Menzies 10 days after Hitler invaded Poland, saying (Hitler) does not want a first-class war, saying nobody gives a damn about Poland.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe argued\u00a0that we have no right to dictate what sort of government Germany has.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0the Liberals who are desperate for a distraction from the fact that Angus Taylor is hopeless.\u00a0They\u2019ve\u00a0spent more time defending Menzies than they have their own leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is how ridiculous they are and irrelevant they are\u00a0at the moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following the press club address, opposition MPs moved to censure Mr Conroy.<\/p>\n
Shadow defence minister James Paterson accused the minister of engaging in historical revisionism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs prime minister between 1939 and 1941, Menzies prepared Australia for war and did not hesitate to join the fight against the Nazis on September 3, 1939,\u201d Senator Paterson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn opposition, he loyally supported the Curtin government in Australia\u2019s fight against fascism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo said there was historical context behind the\u00a0debate but\u00a0questioned whether the language used by the minister advanced the discussion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pezzullo said there was significant debate among Allied leaders after Germany invaded Poland about whether conflict should be delayed while countries rebuilt military capability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHistorically, he’s right,\u201d Mr Pezzullo said of Mr Conroy\u2019s broader argument.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a big push to try to appease Hitler after the invasion of Poland, to try by time, but I just don’t know that the label helped.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Pezzullo pointed to similar debates in Britain and the United States at the time, arguing the period could not be viewed through a modern political lens.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said figures including British prime minister Neville Chamberlain had pursued policies aimed at\u00a0buying time\u00a0rather than embracing Nazi ideology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coalition MPs accused Labor of attacking a prime minister widely regarded as one of the most significant figures in Australian political history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan said the government had become increasingly political in its handling of the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had Pat Conroy, the defence industry minister, having said at the National Press Club that Sir Robert Menzies was a Nazi appeaser,\u201d Mr Tehan told Sky News.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe censured him in the parliament, and the sad reality was Labor opposed that censure motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had Tim Watts, the Victorian member of parliament, who\u00a0basically yelled\u00a0out and had to withdraw that\u00a0Sir Robert Menzies, was a coward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Tehan said the dispute reflected a broader trend inside the government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Labor Party have shown on a policy front they cannot get their act together,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the mounting criticism, Mr Conroy\u2019s office has made clear there will be no apology.<\/p>\n
Mr Conroy used his National Press Club address to defend Labor\u2019s defence credentials and unveil major reforms to defence procurement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The minister said $29 billion had been wasted over the past decade due to what he described as systems that were \u201cnot fit for purpose\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
He announced structural changes aimed at improving accountability across defence and argued the reforms demonstrated why Labor could be trusted with national security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The address drew a contrast between wartime Labor prime minister John Curtin and Mr Menzies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy great hero is John Curtin,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very interested in disclosing what really happened before World War II and during World War II, where it was a choice between John Curtin and Nazi-appeaser Robert Gordon Menzies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The comments prompted an immediate backlash in parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The dispute centres on a letter written by Menzies in September 1939, shortly after Australia entered World War II.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The document, which was released publicly decades later, discussed whether negotiations with Adolf Hitler might still be possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has refused to back away from his description of Sir Robert Menzies as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,4919,13869,1200,156,7907,1203,490,2271],"class_list":["post-43591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-coalition","tag-dan-tehan","tag-james-paterson","tag-labor","tag-mike-pezzullo","tag-national-press-club","tag-pat-conroy","tag-robert-menzies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}