PROLOGUE: How Many Germans Did You Kill, Doc?

Late on the morning of 20 April 1939, Earle Page – surgeon, grazier, newspaper proprietor, treasurer and prime minister – delivered the most notorious speech ever heard in the parliament of Australia. His carefully worded but scandalously bitter attack on the personal fitness of Robert Menzies to serve as prime minister not only earned Page outraged condemnation at the time, but also has grossly distorted perceptions of him ever since. This is despite Page having been the most remarkable visionary to hold political power in Australia. His determined efforts to realise the nation’s economic potential by recasting it as a