page_title: Robert Muldoon
section_title: Leader of the Opposition
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Muldoon / Leader of the Opposition
caption_attribution_description: English: Celebrating on election night, November 29 1975 Archives New Zealand reference: AAXO 8092 W4742 Box 7 Item 17
context_page_description: Sir Robert David Muldoon GCMG CH PC 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.
  Serving as a corporal and sergeant in the army in the Second World War, Muldoon completed his training as an accountant and returned to New Zealand as its first fully qualified cost accountant. He was first elected to the House of Representatives at the 1960 general election as the Member of Parliament for Tamaki. Muldoon served successively as Minister of Tourism, Minister of Finance, and Deputy Prime Minister. He became Leader of the Opposition in 1974 and soon led the National Party 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. His tenure as Prime Minister 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.
context_section_description: Many members of the party caucus regarded Marshall as not up to the task of taking on the formidable new Prime Minister Norman Kirk. Partly due to this, Marshall resigned, and Muldoon took over, becoming Leader of the Opposition on 9 July 1974. A day later, Muldoon's first autobiography, The Rise and Fall of a Young Turk, was published. The book was to be reprinted four times and sell 28,000 copies.
  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, promising a generous national superannuation scheme to replace Kirk and Rowling's employer-contribution superannuation scheme (which the famous "Dancing Cossack" television advertisement implied would turn New Zealand into a communist state), and undertaking 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. Muldoon overwhelmed Rowling, reversing the 32–55 Labour majority to a 55–32 National majority.
caption: Muldoon and Thea Muldoon (centre left) with National members celebrating on election night, 29 November 1975
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