Sir Robert Menzies
Menzies returns from six months overseas on 6 January and announces plans to speak at all capital cities before Parliament resumes the next month.
(Argus 6 Jan 1949)- December 10: R G Menzies is elected Prime Minister of Australia. The coalition government with Country Party leader A W Fadden as Deputy Prime Minister is sworn in on December 19 by Governor-General William McKell.
- Robert Menzies speaks on Communism:
"All I need say is that Australia is British. It has a great and tried and common family allegiance under the Crown. But Australia knows, and so do the Communists, that the closest concert between the United States and the Commonwealth is vital to the common defence.
We will work incessantly to strengthen this great association, just as the Communist powers and their overseas friends will work incessantly to divide and destroy us."