O'Malley, MHR

by Larry Noye

"He well and truly does. Colour went with King O’Malley. He breezes into the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition of 1888 to have international pressmen rocking with laughter as he tells his stories. He fights two elections in 1899 for the South Australian Colonial Parliament that remain lively, unreported chapters in its history. And during sixteen years in Federal Parliament, he packs ‘em in. He wins a seat in the newly federated Australian Parliament and fights off bitter, entrenched opposition to lead the Labor Party in founding a ‘people’s bank’, the Commonwealth Bank. As an old man in Melbourne, O’Malley is appalled at a bid in 1939 toward undermining his bank with privatisation. He calls on Australians to swear by the tombs of their ancestors that they won’t allow this and would have been irate in its loss to privatisation in recent years. He was critical of the way his Commonwealth Bank was being run – as he would be today. King O’Malley’s stirring life is the subject of three biographies and a hit musical. King strove amid central themes in Australian history – the vote for women, Federation, penysions, and the fight over conscription. As Minister for Home Affairs, he launched the bold bid to push a railway across the wastes to West Australia and led the building of Canberra. King O’Malley was a national hero of a high order."

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Josh Merriman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very detailed and informative, but some disappointing aspects. I read both Noye's book (published 1985) and Arthur Hoyle's "King O'Malley: The American Bounder" (published 1981). Noye accepts O'Malley's personal accounts of his early life as the entire truth. But Hoyle clearly outlines that O'Malley exaggerated and fabricated numerous aspects of his life. It's unfortunate that Noye - despite publishing his book four years later - did not question any of O'Malley's tall tales. Did he not bother to read the existing authoritative biography before publishing his own? Noye does out-do Hoyle in some aspects, such as his coverage of O'Malley's later life as an elder statesman doling out advice (usually unsolicited) to whoever would listen.

Noye's book has numerous spelling errors and words left out. Probably the fault of the editor rather than the author, but still disappointing in what is claimed to be an academic work. Repeatedly misspelling the name of an Australian prime minister (Earle Page not "Earl" Page) is pretty unforgivable in a work of Australian political history. I read the 1985 edition but hopefully these errors were eliminated in the 2009 republication.