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2 Early Career 3 Leader of the Opposition 4 Prime Minister 5 Later Life 6 Suggestions for further reading 7 External links |
Born to lower-middle-class parents in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, Muldoon's strongest formative influence was his fiercely intelligent, iron-willed maternal grandmother, Jerusha, a committed socialist. Though Muldoon never accepted her creed, he did develop under her influence a potent ambition, a consuming interest in politics, and an abiding respect for New Zealand's welfare state. Also, when he was a teenager, Muldoon suffered the humiliation of his father's committment to an institution as his mind decayed. Years later, Muldoon discovered that his father, a First World War veteran, had suffered from syphilis.
Serving as an intelligence officer in the Second World War, he completed his training as an accountant; when he returned to New Zealand after the war, he was the country's first fully qualified cost accountant. In March 1947 he joined a newly-founded branch of the Junior Nationals, the youth wing of the conservative New Zealand National Party. He quickly became active in the party, making two sacrificial-lamb bids for Parliament against entrenched incumbents in 1954 and 1957 before being elected MP for Tamaki in 1960 in the wave that brought the Holyoake government to power. He displayed a flair for debate and a diligence in his backbench work, and in 1963 he was made Under-Secretary to the Minister of Finance. While holding this office, he was responsible for the successful introduction of decimal currency into New Zealand. When the previous Minister of Finance died in 1967, Muldoon was the natural (and only) choice to replace him; at 45, he was the youngest Minister of Finance since the 1890s. However, because Holyoake believed Muldoon was too arrogant and ambitious for his own good, he was not given the Finance Minister's usual number-three spot, but placed at number eight, the lowest-ranking position on the Government front bench.
Muldoon rapidly established a considerable national profile; many historians credit his image, rather than that of the Prime Minister, Holyoake, or his deputy, Jack Marshall, for the National Party's surprise victory in the 1969 election. He also displayed a flair for the new medium of television lacking in his older superiors. (He is still considered one of New Zealand's most artful practitioners of media manipulation.) When Holyoake stood down in 1971, Muldoon challenged Marshall for the top job; he was defeated, barely, but unanimously elected deputy leader and hence Deputy Prime Minister.
Marshall fought the 1972 election on a slogan of "Man For Man, The Strongest Team" -- an allusion to Marshall's own low-key style, particularly compared to his deputy. The party was badly defeated, ending a twelve-year run in government. In the aftermath, Muldoon deposed Marshall. Many members of the party caucus believed Marshall was not up to the task of taking on the formidable Labour Prime Minister, Norman Kirk. Muldoon, on the other hand, relished the opportunity -- but had it only for a short time, until Kirk's sudden death in August 1974. In the 1975 election, Muldoon overwhelmed Kirk's lacklustre successor, Bill Rowling, reversing the 32-55 Labour majority outright into a 55-32 National majority. His platform offered "New Zealand The Way You Want It", promising a generous national superannuation scheme to replace the old nineteenth-century pension structure.
Upon becoming Prime Minister, Muldoon broke with tradition and remained Minister of Finance as well, concentrating enormous power in himself. The "Muldoon years" are marked by Muldoon's obstinate, resourceful, and autocratic attempts to maintain New Zealand's "cradle to the grave" welfare state, dating from 1935, in the face of a changing world. The nation's economy was suffering: from the aftermath of the 1973 energy crisis, from the loss of New Zealand's biggest export market upon Britain's entry to the European Economic Community, and from rampant inflation. Rather than attempting to foster diversification of the economy, Muldoon imposed draconian wage and price controls and promoted a strategy he labeled "Think Big", in which the government borrowed heavily and pumped the funds into large-scale industrial projects, most of which failed or yielded minimal profit. He was also obliged to borrow to fund the welfare state and New Zealand's extremely lavish regime of agricultural subsidies.
Muldoon was re-elected in 1978 and 1981; however, in both elections, the Labour opposition received more popular votes across the country as a whole. This ambiguous mandate did not dilute Muldoon's agenda, and he became more emphatic and autocratic as his time in power grew.
In 1980, there was an abortive attempt, known as the Colonels' Coup, to replace Muldoon with his deputy, Brian Talboys. However, Talboys was a somewhat reluctant draftee, and Muldoon was able to see the plotters off with relative ease. This was the only serious challenge to Muldoon's authority in his years as Prime Minister.
Muldoon's authoritarian reputation was only exacerbated by his refusal to prevent the tour by the Springboks, the national rugby squad of apartheid South Africa. "The Tour", as it has become known, provoked massive protests and some of the worst social schisms New Zealand has ever seen. Muldoon came down firmly on the pro-Tour side, arguing that sport and politics should be kept separate, and displaying open contempt for the protesters.
He received a KCMG, becoming Sir Robert, in 1983.
His autocratic style eventually undid him: following a late-night clash with National backbencher Marilyn Waring over highly contentious opposition-sponsored nuclear-free New Zealand legislation, in which Waring told him she would cross the floor (giving the Opposition a victory), Muldoon, visibly drunk, called the snap election of July 1984. He lost to David Lange's resurgent Labour Party, which won 56 seats to National's 37.
Muldoon justified the snap election by Waring's revolt; however, historians have been critical of this excuse, as Waring said at the time and has repeated since that she would not have denied the Government confidence or supply, and would not have prevented Muldoon from governing. It was at the time and remains a strong convention in New Zealand politics that a Prime Minister does not dissolve Parliament prematurely unless they cannot govern, unless they need to seek the electorate's endorsement on a matter of national importance (as was the case in 1951).
A final controversy occurred during the transfer of power: while Muldoon was still technically Prime Minister (Lange and his Cabinet not yet having been sworn in) a major currency crisis occurred. By convention, the caretaker government defers to the wishes of the incoming government in these situations; however, Muldoon refused to devalue the dollar, as Lange wanted. This provoked a minor constitutional crisis until Muldoon grudgingly agreed to devalue. Legislation was subsequently passed to ensure the situation would not repeat itself.
Muldoon was deposed as National Party leader shortly after the election by Jim McLay, his deputy. McLay lasted two years, with Muldoon actively undermining his leadership. In 1986 he was ousted in turn by his own deputy (and Muldoon's preferred candidate), Jim Bolger.
Muldoon lived, and remained in Parliament, throughout the Fourth Labour Government's radical neoliberal reforms, known as Rogernomics. He also lived -- to his far greater horror -- to see the government of his own man, Bolger, elected in the landslide of 1990, take up the neoliberal baton and brandish it with great enthusiasm under Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, who gave her name to the second-stage neoliberal reforms: Ruthanasia. His conscience tormented him; he could not bring himself to vote with the Labour Party against the Bolger government's benefit cuts, but, looking miserable, abstained.
Although he remained iconic to particular segments of society, particularly the elderly, Muldoon quickly faded as a force on the political scene. He had a short stage career in a New Zealand production of the Rocky Horror Show, starring as the narrator, and hosted a talkback radio show entitled "Lilies and other things," after his favourite flower. It was on this show, on 17 November 1991, that he announced he would stand down from Parliament; he formally retired one month later, on 17 December. He fell seriously ill almost immediately, and died in hospital on 5 August 1992.
Muldoon remains one of the most complex, fascinating, and polarising figures in New Zealand history. He divides people into camps of those who love him and those who hate him; very few people, except those born after his fall, are neutral. To his enemies, "Piggy" Muldoon was a dictatorial Prime Minister who nearly destroyed the both New Zealand's economy and New Zealand society through his arrogance. To those who revered him, known as "Rob's Mob", he was an icon of the New Zealand national character. Most historians recognise him as brilliant -- talented -- without being great, because the line of policy he ultimately pursued was not sustainable . Some argue that he was responsible for much of the pain caused by the free-market reforms of 1983-93, because by holding on for as long as he did he forced the inevitable reforms to be implemented with unusual speed and severity.
Muldoon famously declared upon becoming Prime Minister that he hoped to leave New Zealand "no worse off than I found it". He dominated New Zealand politics for over a decade, and still influences the conduct of government today. His biographer, Barry Gustafson, gives him the following epitaph: "By 1992 New Zealand had not become what Muldoon or many other New Zealanders wanted it to be but he was not prepared to take the blame for that. Muldoon died unrepentant and still convinced that his way, even if never perfect, had been a better way."
Youth
Early Career
Leader of the Opposition
Prime Minister
Later Life
Suggestions for further reading
38. Auckland: Reed Methuen, ISBN 0-474-00220-9 (1986).
External links