William Maloney

Who was William Maloney?

Dr William Robert Nuttall Maloney was a long serving Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives for 36 years from 1904 to 1940.

Born into a wealthy family in West Melbourne, Maloney was educated in the Melbourne private school system, the University of Melbourne and St Mary's Hospital, London, graduating as a Medical Doctor. Returning to Melbourne in 1888, Maloney divided his time between his obstetrics practice and agitating for social reform. It was during this period that he acquired the nickname that he would retain throughout his life, the Little Doctor.

Elected to the Victorian colonial Legislative Assembly as the Member for West Melbourne in April 1889, Maloney showed his radical nature by introducing one of the first Bills advocating women's suffrage in the British Empire. He also found the time to establish the Medical Institute, which provided free medical treatment for the poorer denizens of Melbourne.