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Sir Robert David Muldoon (; 25 September 19215 August 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st prime minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while leader of the National Party. Departing from National Party convention, Muldoon was a right-wing populist and economic nationalist, with a distinctive public persona described as reactionary, aggressive, and abrasive.
After a troubled childhood, Muldoon served as a corporal and sergeant in the army in the Second World War. After a career as a Cost accounting, he was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1960 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamaki, representing the National Party. Muldoon rose in the Second National Government to serve successively as Minister of Tourism (1967), Minister of Finance (1967–1972), and Deputy Prime Minister (1972). Over this time he built up an informal but solid backing amongst National's mostly rural right faction, which he called "Rob's Mob". After National lost the 1972 general election to the Labour Party, Muldoon used his connections to oust moderate party leader Jack Marshall and take his place, becoming Leader of the Opposition in 1974. Through Muldoon's ideological blend of moderate social liberalism and Protectionism right-wing populism ("counterpunching", a term he coined) and the promise of a lucrative superannuation scheme, National enjoyed a resurgence. The early death of prime minister Norman Kirk severely weakened the Labour Party, and Muldoon soon led National to a decisive victory in the 1975 general election.
Muldoon came to power promising to lead "a Government of the ordinary bloke". He appointed himself Minister of Finance. Although he used populist rhetoric to rail against and the political establishment, he consistently tried to centralise power under himself during his premiership. His tenure was plagued by an economic pattern of stagnation, high inflation, growing unemployment, and high external debts and borrowing. Economic policies of the Muldoon Government included national superannuation, wage and price freezes, industrial incentives, and the Think Big industrial projects. He reintroduced and intensified the previous government's policies of the Dawn Raids, which racially targeted Pasifika overstayers. To engage with crime, Muldoon built "unusually close relationships" with criminal gangs; he personally favoured Black Power, and he and his wife Thea Muldoon met with them on several occasions. In foreign policy, Muldoon adopted an anti-Soviet stance and re-emphasised New Zealand's defence commitments to the United States and Australia under the ANZUS pact. His refusal to stop a Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand divided the country and led to unprecedented civil disorder in 1981. Muldoon became more and more controversial as his premiership progressed; in addition to the controversy of the Springbok tour, he began a smear campaign against Labour MP Colin Moyle for alleged illegal homosexual activities and punched demonstrators at a protest.
Muldoon led his party to two additional election victories in 1978 and 1981, with the first-past-the-post electoral system keeping him in power despite losing the popular vote in each election except 1975. At the 1984 snap election, which Muldoon infamously announced while intoxicated on live television, National finally suffered a significant defeat to Labour. Shortly before leaving office, amid a constitutional crisis, Muldoon was forced by the incoming Government to devalue the New Zealand dollar. In 1984, he was only the second prime minister (after Keith Holyoake) to receive a knighthood while still in office. Mounting legal costs encouraged Muldoon to pursue a novelty acting career, but he remained in parliament until his retirement in 1992. He died shortly thereafter; the gang Black Power performed a haka at his funeral.
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At the age of five, 'Rob' Muldoon slipped while playing on the front gate, damaging his cheek and resulting in a distinctive lopsided smile that remained with him for life.
When Muldoon was aged eight, his father was admitted to Auckland Mental Hospital at Point Chevalier, where he died of Neurosyphilis nearly 20 years later in 1946. This left Muldoon's mother to raise him on her own. During this time Muldoon came under the strong formative influence of 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. Muldoon won a scholarship to attend Mount Albert Grammar School from 1933 to 1936. He left school at age 15, finding work at Fletcher Construction and then the Auckland Electric Power Board as an arrears clerk. He studied accountancy by correspondence.
In 1951 Muldoon married Thea Muldoon, who he had met through the Junior Nationals. The couple had three children. Lady Muldoon, who died at age 87 in 2015, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 New Year Honours London Gazette (supplement), No. 53154, 30 December 1992; retrieved 9 January 2013. and made a Companion of the Queen's Service Order in the 1986 New Year Honours. London Gazette (supplement), No. 50362, 30 December 1985; retrieved 9 January 2013. Muldoon was protective of his family life and, in particular, his wife. He said that people could comment about him but his family was off limits.
Muldoon, along with Duncan MacIntyre and Peter Gordon who entered parliament in the same year, became known as the "Young Turks" (a for a group of young rebels) because of their criticism of the party's senior leadership. From his early years as an MP, Muldoon became known as Piggy; the that would remain with him throughout his life even amongst those who were his supporters. Muldoon himself seemed to relish his controversial public profile.
Muldoon opposed both abortion and capital punishment. In 1961 he was one of ten National MPs to cross the floor and vote with the Opposition to remove capital punishment for murder from the Crimes Bill that the Second National Government had introduced. In 1977 he voted against the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 when the issue also came up as a conscience vote.
Muldoon was appointed in 1961 to the Public Accounts Committee, which in 1962 became the Public Expenditure Committee. He was well informed on all aspects of the government, and could participate in many debates in Parliament.
When Harry Lake died suddenly of a heart attack in February 1967 (only days after Muldoon had joined the Cabinet), Prime Minister Keith Holyoake appointed Muldoon over Tom Shand (who himself died unexpectedly in December 1969) and Jack Marshall who had declined the post. Muldoon was to remain Minister of Finance for 14 of the next 17 years; at 45, he became the youngest Minister of Finance since the 1890s. At the time there was a serious economic crisis due to a down-turn in the price of wool.
In response to this crisis, Muldoon introduced mini-budgets instead of annual budgets, the first being presented on 4 May 1967. He cut and held public expenditure and increased indirect taxes to reduce demand. As a result, Muldoon was credited with the better economic performance New Zealand enjoyed, raising his profile among the public.
Muldoon established a considerable national profile rapidly; Holyoake would later credit his image, rather than that of his deputy, Jack Marshall, for the National Party's surprise victory in the 1969 election. He displayed a flair for the newly introduced medium of television (broadcasts began in New Zealand in 1960).
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. Muldoon commented on Labour's election promises with "They can't promise anything because I've spent it all". Labour, led by the charismatic Norman Kirk, was swept into office, ending 12 years in political power for National.
Muldoon relished the opportunity to match up against Kirk – but had it for only a short time, until Kirk's sudden unexpected death on 31 August 1974. Kirk was replaced as prime minister by Bill Rowling shortly afterwards. In the 1975 election, National ran on a platform of "New Zealand – The Way YOU Want It", a slogan Muldoon came up with himself. He promised a generous Social security scheme to replace Kirk and Rowling's employer-contribution superannuation scheme (which the famous "Dancing Cossacks" television advertisement implied would turn New Zealand into a communist state), and promised to fix New Zealand's "shattered economy". Labour responded with a campaign called Citizens for Rowling, described by Muldoon as "not even a thinly disguised" attack on himself. At the election, Muldoon overwhelmed Rowling, reversing the 55-32 Labour majority to a 55–32 National majority.
Economics correspondent Brian Gaynor has claimed that Muldoon's policy of reversing Labour's saving scheme cost him a chance to transform the New Zealand economy. The National superannuation scheme was one of Muldoon's 1975 election promises: it was described as a "generous" policy, and was effective in realigning Muldoon's support from elderly voters. However, the high cost of the scheme had an immense impact on the budget; Margaret McClure determined that the scheme's superannuation was substantially higher than that of similar policies elsewhere in the world. The United States' superannuation for a married couple was effectively 49% of the average wage rate, and 40% in Australia and 38% in Britain; however, New Zealand's was set at 80%. Therefore, by 1981 the spending on this scheme had doubled, and made up 17.3% of the government's budget. This resulted in other social policy programs, particularly education, being deprived of funds during this period. Justice Stephen Kós has also stated that the "increase, without contribution, was utterly unsustainable."Justice Stephen Kos "Constitutional collision: Fitzgerald v Muldoon v Wild" (2014) 13 Otago LR 243.
In his first term (1975–1978) Muldoon focused on reducing expenditure, but struggled with the growing cost of his own superannuation scheme, partly due to the many tax rebates and exemptions he passed for lower income earners. By March 1978 the economy was growing again, but unemployment and inflation remained high.
In July 1974, Muldoon as opposition leader had promised to cut immigration and to "get tough" on law and order issues. He claimed that the Labour government's immigration policies had contributed to the economic recession and undermined the "New Zealand way of life" by causing a housing shortage. During the 1975 general elections, the National Party had played a controversial electoral advertisement that was later criticised for stoking racism about Polynesian migrants. Muldoon's government accelerated and increased the Kirk government's police raids against Pacific overstayers. These operations involved special police squads conducting dawn raids on the homes of overstayers throughout New Zealand. Overstayers and their families were usually deported to their countries of origin.
The Dawn Raids were widely condemned by various sections of New Zealand society, including the Pacific Islander and Māori communities, church groups, employers and workers' unions, anti-racist groups, and the opposition Labour Party. The raids were also criticised by elements of the New Zealand Police and the ruling National Party for damaging relations with the Pacific Islander community. At the time, Pacific Islanders comprised only one third of the overstayers (who were primarily from the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa), but made up 86% of those arrested and prosecuted for overstaying. The Muldoon government's treatment of overstayers also damaged relations with Pacific countries like Samoa and Tonga, and generated criticism from the South Pacific Forum. By 1979, the Muldoon government terminated the Dawn Raids, concluding that they had failed to alleviate the economic problems.
The subsequent was won by David Lange, and the attention that this got him helped propel Lange to the leadership of the Labour Party and his landslide victory over Muldoon in the 1984 election.
This choice was controversial because Holyoake was a sitting Cabinet minister. Both opponents and supporters of Muldoon's government claimed that it was a political appointment; a number of National MPs, including his deputy, disagreed with the precedent of having a politician as Governor-General. The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Rowling complained that he had not been consulted on the appointment, and then stated that he would act to remove Holyoake as Governor-General should the Labour Party win the 1978 general election. As a result of the appointment, Holyoake resigned from Parliament, resulting in the Pahiatua by-election of 1977. He was succeeded in his seat by John Falloon.
As prime minister, he accepted both the American and Chinese views that the Soviet Union was an aggressive power with hegemonic ambitions in the South Pacific. Muldoon would also join the United States President Jimmy Carter and other Western leaders in condemning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and boycotting the 1980 Summer Olympics. However, his government did not participate in the US-led trade boycott against the Soviet Union because it would have hurt New Zealand's predominantly agricultural export economy. In 1980, the National government also expelled the Soviet Ambassador, Vsevolod Sofinski, for providing funding to the SUP. Despite his antagonism towards the Soviet Union and domestic Communist movements, Muldoon's government still maintained economic relations with the Soviet Union.
The Think Big projects were a major part of Muldoon's legacy. However, when presenting the idea to the public, Muldoon vastly exaggerated their benefits. Many projects had severe budget overruns of as much as ten times their expected costs. This soon worsened the balance of payments deficit and inflation, as all of the equipment and technology used was imported. As a result of increased oil prices, a decline in New Zealand's terms of trade, and less than expected returns from the Think Big projects, Muldoon was forced to borrow more money. Despite Muldoon's promise before the 1975 election to erase debt, the already high levels of debt remained. The advisability of the Think Big projects remains controversial.
Concerned about the use of foreign exchange during the 1970s' oil crises, Muldoon supported a scheme to retrofit cars to use natural gas or a dual-fuel gas–petrol system. The 1979 budget introduced incentives for the conversions, and New Zealand emerged as the first country to make Bi-fuel vehicle commonplace. However, the projected continued rise in oil prices did not transpire.
The second recession during Muldoon's premiership hit in September 1982. New Zealand's economy contracted again by 3% and unemployment hit 5.1% by 1983, and net emigration remained high.
We are a free and independent nation but in time of trouble we stand with our mother country...New Zealand's decision to break off diplomatic relations with Argentina over the Falklands, immediately after Britain had done so, was not because of Britain's support on the sporting issue. The reason goes much deeper than that. It is in the context of the statement made by a Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1939: "Where Britain goes, we go." We see the Falklands as British territory and the Falklands Islanders as subjects of our Queen. We live at the end of the line and we know the feeling of isolation...With the Falklands Islands, it is family. Historically, Britain has so often on great occasions thrown up the leader that the occasion demanded. I regard Margaret Thatcher as one of the finest and straightest politicians I have ever met...In 1939 we learned the folly of appeasement. A great catastrophe was the price that was paid. The military rulers of Argentina must not be appeased. New Zealand will back Britain all the way.
In the British House of Commons, Margaret Thatcher responded by saying that "The New Zealand Government and people have been absolutely magnificent in their support of this country, of the Falkland Islanders and of the rule of liberty and the rule of law. I shall gladly convey that to Mr. Muldoon, who, only yesterday, reminded me 'Don't forget. In New Zealand, we are still a member of the same family. "House of Commons PQs", 20 May 1982
It is a strong convention in New Zealand politics that a prime minister does not ask for an early election unless he or she cannot govern, or unless they need to seek the electorate's endorsement on a matter of national importance (as was the case in 1951). Muldoon justified the snap election because he felt Waring's revolt impeded his ability to govern. Indeed, it was obvious that Muldoon was finding it hard to pass financial measures with neo-liberal rebels like Ruth Richardson and Derek Quigley voting against the Government on certain issues. However, Waring said that she would not have denied Muldoon confidence or supply. This has led historians to question Muldoon's excuse for calling a snap election, since he still would have had the constitutional means to govern.
Despite both being from conservative parties (the Liberal Party of Australia and the New Zealand National Party), the relationship Muldoon had with Malcolm Fraser was unusually poor; largely due to Muldoon, they never got along. This paralleled the mutual dislike previous left-leaning Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam (Australian Labor Party) and Norman Kirk (New Zealand Labour Party) had for each other. Whitlam and Kirk had both become prime minister in 1972 after a lengthy period of conservative rule, but their governments lasted just one term. Both Fraser and Muldoon became prime minister in 1975, returning right-wing governance to Australasia. With their ideological preferences notwithstanding, the two men did not like each other from very early on, and grew to loathe one another to an undiplomatic degree. This was likely entirely caused, and then exacerbated, by Muldoon's animosity toward Fraser. The elder statesman, Muldoon was blatantly patronising and rude to Fraser, and even Bullying him on repetitive occasions. He also made bigoted remarks towards Australians in Fraser's company, and was known to repeatedly claim that New Zealanders migrating to Australia "raised the IQ of both countries". Muldoon often boasted to Fraser about the slow and costly process of Australia importing New Zealand goods, claiming on one occasion that New Zealand had "screwed the Aussies again" and would always get the upper hand. Even when negotiating and agreeing to Closer Economic Relations (CER), the most sweeping free trade agreement between Australia and New Zealand ever signed up to that point, Muldoon and Fraser refused to engage directly. Their relationship reached a nadir in 1982, during the Pacific Islands Forum in Rotorua. Both men were staying at the same hotel, with Muldoon's room directly below Fraser's. According to future Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer, then a political aide, Fraser snapped and physically lost his temper during a late night policy meeting. Downer recalled in 2003 that the usually patient Fraser suddenly began jumping up and down and swearing loudly "in the hope that he would wake Sir Robert from his sleep, just for the sake of it".
Despite Muldoon's tactless behaviour, Fraser harboured gratitude for him out of his belief that Muldoon had Lifesaving in 1978. According to Fraser himself, this was because Muldoon had inadvertently prevented Fraser from being killed in the 1978 Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing. The hotel was the venue for the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting, a regional offshoot of the biennial meetings of the heads of government from across the Commonwealth of Nations. Fraser recalled that Muldoon had demanded that Fraser change the meeting venue in the hotel from the front to the back, to avoid a group of young, female reproductive rights protestors. They had travelled especially from New Zealand for the event, to demonstrate against Muldoon's refusal to legalise abortion. Fraser, likely considering how Muldoon had physically attacked political demonstrators before, understood that giving him a hostile welcome would be a poor decision. Arguing that it would not look good and could likely provoke New Zealand, he agreed to move the meeting place to the back entrance. Doing so moved Fraser, other leaders and the media away from the original entrance, where that night, a bomb exploded in a bin that was being emptied, killing two rubbish collectors and a policeman. Malcolm Fraser and others theorised that the bomb was planted out the front to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai (although this was never proven) and that if he had walked down to greet Desai as he exited his vehicle at the original entry point, the bomb would likely have been triggered, exploding and killing them both. He later told The Australian in 2009: "I really believe to this day that, in a weird way, Morarji Desai and I probably owe our lives to Robert Muldoon."
Despite Fraser's unwilling gratitude to Muldoon, the two men seemed to dislike each other so much by 1983 that when the time came to ratify CER, they refused to do it together. Instead, the deal was signed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Trade, Lionel Bowen and the New Zealand High Commissioner to Australia, Laurie Francis.
Following the election the controversy became a constitutional crisis: Muldoon refused to do as the incoming government instructed, causing the currency crisis to worsen. Eventually he relented however, after his position as leader of the National party was threatened by members of his caucus.
After nine years, Muldoon's stewardship of the nation and its economy ceased. The newly elected neo-liberal and unexpectedly pro-free market Fourth Labour Government embarked on a series of fundamental free-market reforms known (after Labour's finance minister Roger Douglas) as Rogernomics, and which were then continued from 1990–94 by the succeeding National government's policies known as (after National's finance minister Ruth Richardson) as Ruthanasia, which marked a fundamental break with the more interventionist policies of Muldoon's era.
Muldoon continued to undermine McLay until 1986, when McLay was ousted in turn by his own deputy (and Muldoon's preferred candidate), Jim Bolger, who had served as Minister of Labour for the latter half of Muldoon's term as prime minister. Bolger returned Muldoon to the front bench as spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, pitting him directly against Prime Minister David Lange.
Muldoon remained as the MP for Tamaki until shortly before his death. He lived through the Fourth Labour Government's neo-liberal reforms, known as "Rogernomics", and to his dismay – to see his own man, Bolger, take up the same baton after winning the landslide election of 1990 in the form of "Ruthanasia", named after Finance Minister Ruth Richardson. Muldoon was a staunch critic of Richardson's and the Bolger government's policies.
Muldoon also opposed the legalisation of homosexual behaviour when Labour MP Fran Wilde introduced the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1985. The Bill passed as the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986.
Although he remained iconic to particular segments of society, particularly the elderly, Muldoon faded quickly as a force on the political scene. His biographer, Barry Gustafson, who described himself as not a Muldoon supporter, wrote that he still served as an active MP for his Tamaki electorate, dealing immediately with matters from all walks of life. He continued to write in international economic journals, arguing that the unemployment that had arisen as a result of the free market reforms was worse than the gains that were made, a view that came to be popular by the time of the Fifth Labour Government in 1999.
In his later years Muldoon's health declined as he suffered from a number of ailments, and became increasingly opposed to his successor, Jim Bolger. Alienated from National and disenchanted with government's new neoliberal economic policies (dubbed "Ruthanasia" after Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson), Muldoon announced his resignation to the party caucus on 10 November 1991.
On his Radio Pacific show, on 17 November 1991, Muldoon announced he would stand down from Parliament; he formally retired one month later, on 17 December. His retirement party featured taped speeches from Ronald Reagan (commenting that at Muldoon's age, he was only getting started) and Margaret Thatcher. One of the people organising the party was Bob Jones, who had forgiven Muldoon for their previous falling out. A by-election was held in February 1992, and was won by National's Clem Simich on a reduced majority.
Muldoon was appointed an Additional Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the 1977 Queen's Silver Jubilee and Birthday Honours, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1984 New Year Honours. He was only the second New Zealand Prime Minister (after Sir Keith Holyoake) to receive a knighthood while still in office; at the time he said, "If anyone thought it was a signal of an early retirement, it is not."
Muldoon famously declared upon becoming prime minister that he hoped to leave New Zealand "no worse off than I found it". Historians such as Gustafson and Brian Easton criticise Muldoon because, according to them, he pursued an ultimately unsustainable line of policy. Former Cabinet Minister Hugh Templeton argued Muldoon's lack of "strategic vision" denied New Zealand a careful, measured economic restructuring that paved the way for Rogernomics.
Muldoon enjoyed engaging positively with criminal gangs such as Black Power, and made uncouth public statements that emphasised "bloke". Both his physical appearance (with his distinctive facial scar) and personal style led to the nicknames "Scarface" and "Piggy" – both of which he appropriated himself. Muldoon became patron of the Black Power gang for whom he had created work schemes and advised on the better treatment of women and children associated with the gang. Members paid him solemn respect by performing a haka during his funeral in 1992. For his acrimonious behaviour he was also dubbed a "bully", and posthumously he was said to have "run the country like a gang" himself.
Muldoon's shunning of intellectualism in favour of intimidating, raging against so-called "elites", and blatant, manipulative populism has led him to be called a forerunner to the likes of Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson and Silvio Berlusconi. Both Muldoon and Trump pursued populist protectionist methods aimed at creating both full employment and self-sufficiency and promoted anti-immigration policies, while demonstrating aggressive and tactless personal behaviour.
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