Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration to give preference to trade unions. The debate became unexpectedly heated and resulted in the fall of Chris Watson's Labor government. The Free Trade Party's George Reid became Prime Minister and offered McCay the post of Minister for Defence. McCay became the sixth Minister for Defence in four years. His predecessor, Senator Anderson Dawson, had chaired a committee that had produced a detailed report recommending the abolition of the post of General Officer Commanding Australian Military Forces and the creation of a Council of Defence, a Naval Board and a Military Board. It fell to McCay to implement the report's recommendations and create a five-man Military Board consisting of himself, a finance member and three military officers. McCay preferred the senior member not be styled the Chief of the General Staff. This change would not be made until 1909. At the first meeting of the Council of Defence, McCay rejected the arguments of Captain William Rooke Creswell for the majority of the defence budget to be spent on supporting the British fleet. In 1905 the Reid government collapsed and McCay became a backbencher once more. Since the Federal parliament sat in Parliament House, Melbourne, McCay lived at the Stock Exchange Club in Collins Street, Melbourne while his family remained in Castlemaine. He maintained a liaison with a married woman, Ella Gavan Duffy. In the 1906 redistribution, McCay's electorate of Corinella was abolished and its territory divided between the electorates of Laanecoorie and Corio. McCay decided to run in Corio against the sitting member, Richard Crouch, although he was also a Protectionist, but Crouch won convincingly. In 1910, the Commonwealth Liberal Party Senate candidate, Thomas Skene, died suddenly two days before the nomination date for the 1910 election. McCay submitted himself as candidate but lost. Military career McCay's military career began in 1884, when he enlisted in the 4th (Castlemaine) Battalion, Victorian Rifles. He was commissioned as a lieutenant on 29 October 1886, and was subsequently promoted to captain on 5 March 1889 and major on 13 March 1896. Following the forced resignation of the commander of the 8th Regiment for making a political speech touting McCay, McCay was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assumed command of the regiment on 12 January 1900. Director of Military Intelligence On 6 December 1907, on the recommendation of the Chief of Intelligence, Colonel William Throsby Bridges, the Minister