Barry Soper: Senior Political Correspondent on the 40th anniversary of Muldoon' snap election

Today marks 40 years since Robert Muldoon’s snap election – and Barry Soper recounts the former Prime Minister’s drunken media interview.  

Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper told Heather du Plessis-Allan “He was absolutely incoherent.” 

“The Governor General, David Beattie, had to take over the interview, while Muldoon was bundled into his LTD limo, and taken back to parliament to sober him up.”  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Very sober senior political correspondence with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Now, Hey, Barry, good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Forty years to the day since the snap election was called.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Seems like yesterday, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Just Mate Muldoon was still alive.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I just thought i'd remind you listeners. The reason why
it was called was Marilyn Wearing was supporting the Labor
parties proposed nuclear free New Zealand policy and the majority
was so slim that Muldoon decided that he wouldn't take
the chance. I became known as the Snap's Election after
I interviewed him daily during the campaign. But I was

(00:34):
up at Government House when he prorogued Parliament, and my
memory of it was the Government House butler ferrying into
a little anti room off of the entrance a glass
of scotch, and he did that several times. And by
the time that Muldoon emerged onto the steps at Government

(00:55):
House was only myself and another reporter there. He was
absolutely incoherent and the Governor General, David Beatty, he had
to take over the interview whilst Muldourn was bundled into
his lted limo taken back to Parliament to sober up. Now,

(01:15):
when Muldoon got back to Parliament. They worked to sober
him up, there's no doubt about that. Before he faced
the media en mass. This is probably his most immortal slur.
We got a date the fourteenth of July, which we
worked out at Government House as being the appropriate date.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
It doesn't give you much time to run up to
an election from minister.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Doesn't give my panish much time to run up to
an election, does it? I certainly didn't. And I remember
the Tom Scott cartoon that appeared in the newspaper the
next morning. It was Muldourn waking up in bed next
to his wife was there, but he used to call
a Tam waiting waking up with the party hats on

(01:58):
the bed and the streamers, and Muldoon looking at Tam saying,
did I say something about a snap election last night?
And it was probably very true. But the drinking continued
through the campaign and on the Thursday night, when he
wrapped up his campaign, I remember he arrived at the
Auckland Town Hall and he was batting off protesters and

(02:21):
I said to him, Prime Minister, can I interview you
about the election campaign and how it's gone? He said,
as come and see me in my room an hour
after I've finished speaking. I think that was his biggest mistake,
because by the time I got there, he was slumped
in an arm chair, little wisps of hair hanging over

(02:41):
his shoulder, tie undone, and lying on the floor by
his side was an empty bottle of red wine. I
gin reflected as radio reporters do, and put a microphone
up to his mouth and I said, Primers, do you
think you've won the elect He goes, he waved, waggles

(03:02):
his head from side to side, and I said, prime Aster,
this is radio. You've got to speak. Ask the question again.
Do you believe you won the election? Marldon goes Nope,
And I thought, my god, I've got an absolute scoop here,
And of course he was. He was conceding defeat. On
the Thursday night before the election, all my colleagues had
repaired to the bar at the hotel because they hadn't

(03:26):
fortunately got an interview with Muldoon. He was on radio.
First thing the next morning.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
You ran it the next morning, oh, we ran it.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
The next morning. He called a press conference at eight
o'clock and he are sitting in the front row of
the press conference and he denied all knowledge of the interview,
which was probably true. Probably couldn't remember him.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Say that it was taken out of context.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
And absolutely that he might have said was taken out
of context. I said, but Prime Minister, I was there.
You said it to me. No, no, no, you twisting
things again, mister Sohoper So and that was the end
of it, and it was the end of my doo.
And of course that snap election Roger Douglas I heard
you refer to earlier. Interestingly, he laid what became the

(04:07):
economic foundation for New Zealand. And without that foundation being laid,
this country probably would have been in an even worse
state than it is today because we haven't wavered from
that through various hues of government.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yep, absolutely, Hey Willie Jackson, So will he believes everything
was just absolutely.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Ten sweet it does. I mean, it's incredible that he
was on AM this morning on TV three and he
was bitter about the coalition government scrapping the Climate change Initiative.
Hey Wakinoa and he said, after years of work, everybody
had come together. He seemed confused though, when he claimed

(04:54):
that farmers had agreed to the Emissions Trading Act coming
into force. For them next year. Haven't listened to what
he had to.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Say twenty one years ago, all the nut jobs right
coming up the steps of Parliament. We get this wonderful
Prime Minister, Justina our and he says, I don't want
that anymore. Industry. We're going to work together. All the
industry heads come together, federated farmers you know, beef and
lamb and beef for the Marley Federation of all that.
Everyone comes together. We work on an agreement where the

(05:22):
industry actually looks like it's going to pay its way.
It's sadly our environmentalist killers, some of the nutjob farmers
saying no, no, no, But we actually had an agreement,
we had a commitment. We had a wonderful Prime minister
and just Into Adourne who started this.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
You'll see talk about being out to lunch and twenty
one years ago, just to remind listeners that it was
another man, but with the name rather turn it was
Shane a Dern Shane who drove myrtle, his massy Ferguson.
This was the day of politics. It was great, drove
it up the front steps of Parliament to oppose what

(05:58):
they then called the Art Text. Yes and he was
ushered out on the planet.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Will He's going to have to find a new way
of trying to convince voters to vote for the Labor
Party again, because reminding us that the Prime Minister was
wonderful is only going to repel us, furthering his chances
in hand all of purthern No, Hey, thank you, Barry.
Will wrap the political week that was a quarter past
six again. Barry Sober, Senior Political Correspondent.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
For more from

Speaker 1 (06:24):
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