Moyle Affair

It involved allegations of homosexuality made in Parliament by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon against opposition MP Colin Moyle.

What happened eventually became the subject of parliamentary rumour that circulated for more than a year before being brought into the open by Prime Minister Robert Muldoon.

By this time Muldoon had already created a public rift with the LGBT community in New Zealand over his handling of the "outing" of National MP Marilyn Waring as a lesbian in August 1976.

[4] Muldoon asked in Parliament if it "would be in order for me to accuse the member for Mangere of being picked up by the police for homosexual activity".

[7] Many speculated that Muldoon saw the affable, popular Moyle as a leadership threat to himself and acted accordingly to prevent him from becoming Labour leader.

[9] When the House resumed the next day, Moyle said "the allegation concerning me made by the Prime Minister in Parliament last night is absolutely untrue.

It is as unfounded as it is malicious ... At no time in my life have I ever been arrested, apprehended or picked up by the police for any action, any happening or any crime or misdemeanour of any sort".

"[10] Auckland newspaper The New Zealand Herald conducted a poll of readers and found that over 61% disapproved of Muldoon's behaviour and inferences.

[13] He was interviewed on television about the incident in which he criticised Muldoon's behaviour stating "I think anyone who indulges in this kind of conduct is damaging himself and lowering the status of Parliament".

[14] A commission of inquiry into Muldoon's accusations was convened and led by Sir Alfred Kingsley North, a retired Appeal Court judge.

[18] Muldoon's impugning of Moyle has been widely regarded as the "low point of parliamentary mudslinging" in New Zealand history.

[16] The head of the prime minister's department, Gerald Hensley, wrote that Muldoon had later told him that his accusation against Moyle was the thing he most regretted in his life.

[17] In response a large crowd protested outside the 1977 Labour Party Conference and many in New Zealand's LGBT community never forgave him.

[21] In 2018 former Labour MP Mel Courtney stated that "Rowling's handling of the Moyle 'affair' in 1977 by asking Colin Moyle to resign in response to Rob Muldoon's attacks in parliament was wrong" in a submission to parliament regarding a proposed electoral integrity law.

[22] Ironically, the subsequent 1977 by-election was won by David Lange, and the attention that this got him helped propel him to the leadership of the Labour Party and his landslide victory over Muldoon in the 1984 election.

McNeish said "The incident is bigger than Colin Moyle ... the point of the play is about the inquiry and how Muldoon was able to destroy a man".