Into The Carterverse #23 (Muldoon vs Moyle)
Rileyspaghetti
Howdy
- Location
- Commonwealth of Zelandia
(this essentially serves as a treat to me after writing about American politics, so for today I switch back to what the hell has been going on in my own country)
Into the CarterKiwiverse
Muldoon vs Moyle
Robert Muldoon had been Prime Minister of New Zealand for 9 Years. After winning a surprising victory in 1975 and then losing the popular vote in 1978 and 1981 he had clung on to the prime ministership despite being wildly controversial. By 1984 dissenters in his caucus with a 1 seat thin majority were beginning to show themselves. MP Marylin Waring voted against the government on Nuclear Free legislation despite efforts from Muldoon to influence her otherwise at fear of appearing to lose his caucus. During the voting the anti-nuclear legislation passed into law, alongside Ms. Waring Mr. Mike Minogue also crossed the house to vote for the legislation at the last moment having already been opposed to Robert Muldoon's leadership. The immensely restrictive economic of Mr. Muldoon [Constantly exercising state power over the ability to trade and borrowing billions to prop up the overvalued currency] had resulted in division in his own party and his abrasive leadership had annoyed many MPs.
On the night of the 14th of July Robert Muldoon had been enjoying some brandy and dry. National party president Sue Wood had been in the room with him supposedly discussing the possibility of a snap election to her shock. While Muldoon had been privately thinking of the idea for some time he made a decision to call a press conference to call the election. He had only told Mrs. Wood that night despite her being the party president. Wood was opposed to the idea of a snap election which Muldoon knew, giving the reason for his secrecy. According to others in the room Wood and Muldoon had a loud verbal argument as the press were arriving at parliament awaiting the announcement of a snap election. Robert was drunk and ill and could not control his temper resulting in a screaming match. Muldoon tried to leave the room to go talk to the reporters. Sue Wood pulled him back; she tried to go out to the press alone to send them back home. Muldoon chased after her and drunkenly fell to the ground giving Wood enough time to leave the room and shut the door behind her. The short press conference ensued.
Wood: "Good evening everyone. The Prime Minister has been busy with some late night telephone calls but we have just been consulting tonight... He has asked me to tell you all about... a consideration of the extension of the wage and price freeze. The situation that New Zealand is faced with today... is..."
The awkwardness of Wood's speech left reporters puzzled. As Sue Wood was completly making up the content of her speech it took her a few more second to finally master it into something resembling a proper announcement talking about "sacrifices for economic health." Suddenly a loud bang followed by a drunken roar of the Prime Minister was heard behind her. The media cameras had refocused their attention to a disgustingly drunk Rob Muldoon who had tried to run up to the media and failed to turn down the corridor in time resulting in him smacking into the wall. Immediately after about 4 men appeared right behind him and tried to drag him back down the hallway. Sue Wood abandoned the press conference and ran after them. As if it was an impromptu running event the press proceeded to follow Muldoon and Wood down the corridor in a race to capture a picture of the chaos of the behaviour of the drunk Muldoon.
Although Sue Wood had managed to avoid a snap election the Prime Minister had suffered a major national embarrassment as the images of his Drunkeness were broadcast night after night to the general public. Immediately after the incident the National Party caucus met regarding whether to replace the unpopular leader. Bill Birch stood up as a leadership contender. However, he lost a caucus vote by a slim margin.
On the other side of the House, after barley losing 1978 and 1981 the leader Bill Rowling had decided to retire. He'd lead the party since the death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk in 1974 and barely won a leadership challenge against David Lange of the "fish and chip brigade." His resignation seemed initially as if it was going to be a coronation for David Lange. Lange's neoliberal ideas battled against Robert Muldoon's policies of heavy state control but inevitably unpopular with Labour's traditional supporters of socialist policy. But instead of a coronation the leadership contest was in fact the beginning of one of the most surprising comeback stories in New Zealand history.
Colin Moyle first came into parliament in 1963 and was a very popular Minister of Agriculture under Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling. He had respect from National and Rural voters. He had joined the Labour party at age 16 and been involved with youth socialist and labour organizations. He supported the heavy subsidies that New Zealand gave to farming and supported Māori fishing rights in-line with the Waitangi tribunal. He had been seen as a strong leadership contender for a long time. That was until 1977 when the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon himself, had brought up allegations in parliament of homosexual activities by police and mocked Moyle's mannerisms as "effeminate." The accusation of Moyle being a homosexual [Made even more scandalous considering he had a wife and a son] forced him to resign. He never denied nor accepted the allegations but he did say that the whole thing made him sick. His seat was ironically won by David Lange and he returned to farming for 4 more years until being elected to parliament again in 1981. With Muldoon already unpopular he stood for leader, keen to get back at him for ruining his political career.
Moyle's boarder appeal to voters made him the favourite among the caucus and he was elected as leader. His popularity made Labour open a wide lead over National in the polls even before 1984s Missteps by Muldoon. Muldoon's anti-free market policies had also attracted opposition from the right of New Zealand. Bob Jones a former supporter of Muldoon founded the New Zealand party in late 1983 as a economically free market party. In the run up to the 1984 election it saw support in the opinion polls as high as 20% rivalling the National party. Bob Jones' anti-pc style was very controversial and the party was despised by the left-wing.
Muldoon still wanted to call a snap election but needed time to politically recover from his drunken antics on national television which meant that the election would occur at its usual time. The short campaign (decided on by Muldoon) would feature a large amount of Television coverage including 2 head to head debates of Muldoon vs Moyle and another with all 4 major leaders (demanded by Moyle). Moyle was strong on ambitious promises of spending and investment in ridiculous amounts of infrastructure, to overhaul superannuation, take on more debt to prop up the currency, and introduce a wealth tax. An Ambitious plan to save New Zealand from its fortress economy by growing fast and taking risks. Muldoon campaigned on economic stability with occasional jabs at Moyle over his 1977 scandal. Opinion polls showed that Moyle was preferred PM by about 55% of the country while Muldoon sat on about 12%, furthermore opinion polls showed that only about 25% of the public said that the Moyle Affair accusations was an impact on their voting preference. Before the debates Labour had 45% of the vote to National's 25% with the NZ Party and Socred at 10%.
Moyle thrashed Muldoon in all debates being declared the winner. In the multi-party debate the Muldoon bashing was joined by Bob Jones which cleaned up National support just before the election. One of the most iconic lines from the debates occurred at the final 1v1 debate where Robert Muldoon said confusingly "I love you Mr. Moyle." Some accused it of being another dig at the Moyle affair, others thought that it was a line of concession that Muldoon thought that the election campaign was unsalvageable.
It was a wipeout, the largest landslide in New Zealand history. Labour won 88.42% of Parliamentary seats, the largest percentage of seats won by a single party, ever. Prime Minister Muldoon lost his own seat of Tamaki to Labour's Robin Tulloch. the NZ party managed to win one seat but Labour's massive strength meant that even when the NZ party gained second place they were far behind Labour. This was the case in Ōhāriu where Bob Jones far surpassed the National candidate but was beat out by Labour. Social Credits percentage was halved from 1981 but because of National's collapse they managed to win an extra seat.
The immense scale of the win for Labour showed that Colin Moyle definitely had a mandate. As a side effect, the large amount of Rural MPs now meant that Moyle's precious farming subsidies would be safe from being abolished at risk of party revolt. It also meant that even rural regions preferred Labours ambitious plans. For Robert "Piggy" Muldoon the game had been lost, horribly, and for national it was back to the drawing board.
Into th
Muldoon vs Moyle
Robert Muldoon had been Prime Minister of New Zealand for 9 Years. After winning a surprising victory in 1975 and then losing the popular vote in 1978 and 1981 he had clung on to the prime ministership despite being wildly controversial. By 1984 dissenters in his caucus with a 1 seat thin majority were beginning to show themselves. MP Marylin Waring voted against the government on Nuclear Free legislation despite efforts from Muldoon to influence her otherwise at fear of appearing to lose his caucus. During the voting the anti-nuclear legislation passed into law, alongside Ms. Waring Mr. Mike Minogue also crossed the house to vote for the legislation at the last moment having already been opposed to Robert Muldoon's leadership. The immensely restrictive economic of Mr. Muldoon [Constantly exercising state power over the ability to trade and borrowing billions to prop up the overvalued currency] had resulted in division in his own party and his abrasive leadership had annoyed many MPs.
On the night of the 14th of July Robert Muldoon had been enjoying some brandy and dry. National party president Sue Wood had been in the room with him supposedly discussing the possibility of a snap election to her shock. While Muldoon had been privately thinking of the idea for some time he made a decision to call a press conference to call the election. He had only told Mrs. Wood that night despite her being the party president. Wood was opposed to the idea of a snap election which Muldoon knew, giving the reason for his secrecy. According to others in the room Wood and Muldoon had a loud verbal argument as the press were arriving at parliament awaiting the announcement of a snap election. Robert was drunk and ill and could not control his temper resulting in a screaming match. Muldoon tried to leave the room to go talk to the reporters. Sue Wood pulled him back; she tried to go out to the press alone to send them back home. Muldoon chased after her and drunkenly fell to the ground giving Wood enough time to leave the room and shut the door behind her. The short press conference ensued.
Wood: "Good evening everyone. The Prime Minister has been busy with some late night telephone calls but we have just been consulting tonight... He has asked me to tell you all about... a consideration of the extension of the wage and price freeze. The situation that New Zealand is faced with today... is..."
The awkwardness of Wood's speech left reporters puzzled. As Sue Wood was completly making up the content of her speech it took her a few more second to finally master it into something resembling a proper announcement talking about "sacrifices for economic health." Suddenly a loud bang followed by a drunken roar of the Prime Minister was heard behind her. The media cameras had refocused their attention to a disgustingly drunk Rob Muldoon who had tried to run up to the media and failed to turn down the corridor in time resulting in him smacking into the wall. Immediately after about 4 men appeared right behind him and tried to drag him back down the hallway. Sue Wood abandoned the press conference and ran after them. As if it was an impromptu running event the press proceeded to follow Muldoon and Wood down the corridor in a race to capture a picture of the chaos of the behaviour of the drunk Muldoon.
Although Sue Wood had managed to avoid a snap election the Prime Minister had suffered a major national embarrassment as the images of his Drunkeness were broadcast night after night to the general public. Immediately after the incident the National Party caucus met regarding whether to replace the unpopular leader. Bill Birch stood up as a leadership contender. However, he lost a caucus vote by a slim margin.
On the other side of the House, after barley losing 1978 and 1981 the leader Bill Rowling had decided to retire. He'd lead the party since the death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk in 1974 and barely won a leadership challenge against David Lange of the "fish and chip brigade." His resignation seemed initially as if it was going to be a coronation for David Lange. Lange's neoliberal ideas battled against Robert Muldoon's policies of heavy state control but inevitably unpopular with Labour's traditional supporters of socialist policy. But instead of a coronation the leadership contest was in fact the beginning of one of the most surprising comeback stories in New Zealand history.
Colin Moyle first came into parliament in 1963 and was a very popular Minister of Agriculture under Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling. He had respect from National and Rural voters. He had joined the Labour party at age 16 and been involved with youth socialist and labour organizations. He supported the heavy subsidies that New Zealand gave to farming and supported Māori fishing rights in-line with the Waitangi tribunal. He had been seen as a strong leadership contender for a long time. That was until 1977 when the Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon himself, had brought up allegations in parliament of homosexual activities by police and mocked Moyle's mannerisms as "effeminate." The accusation of Moyle being a homosexual [Made even more scandalous considering he had a wife and a son] forced him to resign. He never denied nor accepted the allegations but he did say that the whole thing made him sick. His seat was ironically won by David Lange and he returned to farming for 4 more years until being elected to parliament again in 1981. With Muldoon already unpopular he stood for leader, keen to get back at him for ruining his political career.
Moyle's boarder appeal to voters made him the favourite among the caucus and he was elected as leader. His popularity made Labour open a wide lead over National in the polls even before 1984s Missteps by Muldoon. Muldoon's anti-free market policies had also attracted opposition from the right of New Zealand. Bob Jones a former supporter of Muldoon founded the New Zealand party in late 1983 as a economically free market party. In the run up to the 1984 election it saw support in the opinion polls as high as 20% rivalling the National party. Bob Jones' anti-pc style was very controversial and the party was despised by the left-wing.
Muldoon still wanted to call a snap election but needed time to politically recover from his drunken antics on national television which meant that the election would occur at its usual time. The short campaign (decided on by Muldoon) would feature a large amount of Television coverage including 2 head to head debates of Muldoon vs Moyle and another with all 4 major leaders (demanded by Moyle). Moyle was strong on ambitious promises of spending and investment in ridiculous amounts of infrastructure, to overhaul superannuation, take on more debt to prop up the currency, and introduce a wealth tax. An Ambitious plan to save New Zealand from its fortress economy by growing fast and taking risks. Muldoon campaigned on economic stability with occasional jabs at Moyle over his 1977 scandal. Opinion polls showed that Moyle was preferred PM by about 55% of the country while Muldoon sat on about 12%, furthermore opinion polls showed that only about 25% of the public said that the Moyle Affair accusations was an impact on their voting preference. Before the debates Labour had 45% of the vote to National's 25% with the NZ Party and Socred at 10%.
Moyle thrashed Muldoon in all debates being declared the winner. In the multi-party debate the Muldoon bashing was joined by Bob Jones which cleaned up National support just before the election. One of the most iconic lines from the debates occurred at the final 1v1 debate where Robert Muldoon said confusingly "I love you Mr. Moyle." Some accused it of being another dig at the Moyle affair, others thought that it was a line of concession that Muldoon thought that the election campaign was unsalvageable.
It was a wipeout, the largest landslide in New Zealand history. Labour won 88.42% of Parliamentary seats, the largest percentage of seats won by a single party, ever. Prime Minister Muldoon lost his own seat of Tamaki to Labour's Robin Tulloch. the NZ party managed to win one seat but Labour's massive strength meant that even when the NZ party gained second place they were far behind Labour. This was the case in Ōhāriu where Bob Jones far surpassed the National candidate but was beat out by Labour. Social Credits percentage was halved from 1981 but because of National's collapse they managed to win an extra seat.
The immense scale of the win for Labour showed that Colin Moyle definitely had a mandate. As a side effect, the large amount of Rural MPs now meant that Moyle's precious farming subsidies would be safe from being abolished at risk of party revolt. It also meant that even rural regions preferred Labours ambitious plans. For Robert "Piggy" Muldoon the game had been lost, horribly, and for national it was back to the drawing board.
Last edited: