King O'Malley was thought to have been born in Canada in 1858(?), and migrated to Australia in the late 1880s, possibly for health reasons. He was elected to the South Australia assembly as member for Encounter Bay in 1896, and five years later was a member of the first Federal parliament representing Tasmania. He was one of the first to suggest a national banking system, which later became the Commonwealth Bank, and was in favour of a federal capital.

In 1916 he broke with Prime Minister Hughes over the question of conscription, and was subsequently defeated at the 1917 and 1919 elections. He died in 1953.

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