By May 1916 the effervescent, mysterious King O'Malley, a champion of Canberra and of its designer Walter Burley Griffin, was once again Minister for Home Affairs. Queanbeyan's Age, 100 years ago this week, reported a parliamentary clash.
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"EXTRAVAGANCE AT CANBERRA."
"The [recently deposed and still smarting] Minister for Home Affairs (Mr. Archibald) in the House of Representatives criticised the expenditure of the Government in connection with the Federal Capital at Canberra.
"He criticised the reappointment for three years of Mr. W. B. Griffin, Director of Design and Construction. This gentleman, said Mr. Archibald, received a salary of £1000 per year for six months' work in the year. He had cost the Commonwealth about £6000.
" 'The whole trouble,' proceeded Mr. Archibald, with some heat, 'is that the present Minister for Home Affairs [O'Malley] is an incompetent man ... He is a curious product so far as Ministerial life is concerned. You [O'Malley] have no right to be there [in government]. Men like you are in office at the present time when instead we want the best brains of this House at the head of affairs.'
"Mr. Archibald said that while he was in Parliament he would do his duty, and watch Mr. O'Malley as a cat watches a mouse. (Laughter). It was a disgrace to public life that Mr. O'Malley was on the Treasury Bench.
"Here O'Malley accused Archibald that: 'You were born a wombat.'
"An aghast Speaker ordered O'Malley to withdraw that unparliamentary remark and O'Malley obliged."
