Summer Series 2022-3 Part 4: Lucas McLennan & Lorraine Finlay

In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2022 conference entitled ‘Coming to Power, Learning to Govern and Gathering Momentum 1943-1954’. This fourth episode features Lucas McLennan’s paper examining ‘Menzies and the "Movement": Two pillars of Australian anti-communism’ and Lorraine Finlay’s paper exploring 'What liberty for the enemies of liberty? Reflections on Menzies and the attempts to ban the Australian Communist Party’ (begins at 17:30).

Lucas McLennan works as a Senior History Teacher at Simonds Catholic College in West Melbourne. 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.

Lorraine Finlay is the Human Rights Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission. In this role Lorraine has particular responsibility for protecting and promoting fundamental rights and freedoms, and leads the work of the Commission in areas such as modern slavery, counter-terrorism and national security, refugees and migration, business & human rights, and technology & human rights. Prior to joining the Commission, Lorraine has worked in a range of legal and policy roles, including as a Senior Human Trafficking Specialist with the Australian Mission to ASEAN, a legal academic at Murdoch University, and a State Prosecutor at the Office of the DPP (WA).