Free speech: Fighting the Menzies Institute Fighting back against the Menzies Institute is not a restriction of free speech as the right claims, but is an expression of it. John Roskam, Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) has told Sky News that “we are facing an attempt to shut down freedom of speech, narrow opinion and not introduce students to new ideas…What we are seeing is frankly the cancer that is affecting our schools and universities.” It was inevitable that a campaign against the establishment of the Robert Menzies Institute (RMI) at Melbourne University would elicit a cynical response from the right, calling it a threat to free speech. The campaign, however, presents a clear example of the way the right opportunistically weaponises principles such as free speech when it is in their interests.