Moyle case politics by denigration — Sir John Marshall
PA Wellington A former National Prime Minister, Sir John Marshall, believes that the “Moyle affair” has created “politics by personal denigration” and that it would have been far better if it had never started. Sir John, who was leading the National Party when Mr Muldoon became Leader of the Opposition during the late Mr Norman Kirk’s Labour Administration, said, “It (the ‘Moyle affair’) should never have started because this is creating politics by personal denigration and that is not what running the country is supposed to be.”
Asked how he cpuld measure the damage the affair might have done to the National Party, he said that the damage was to both parties “and to politics.” He declined to comment on the reasons Mr Muldoon gave for releasing the report, which will be made public on Monday.
Earlier, Mr Muldoon said that he would not answer any questions on the report until it was released.
Questioned on the subject after the Government caucus meeting yesterday, he said, “I don’t propose to make any statement until the embargo is released. I don’t propose to answer any questions on it at all.” Mr Muldoon released copies of the report to Parliamentary journalists on Wednesday evening with a strict embargo until midnight on Sunday. He said yesterday that he had deliberately given the document to the journalists under an embargo because there had been
criitcism recently of extensive reports being given to the news media for immediate publication without time to digest the contents of the reports. “I don’t think I should comment until you have displayed to the public what you have been given.” Mr Moyle said in Wellington yesterday that he saw no reason why the complete report could not be released to the public immediately. Asked how his continued questioning of the report and its findings would affect his family, he said, “We have been through hell once. We had a family conference about this and it was decided that we would go through it again until the end.” / North report, page 3
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Press, 14 April 1978, Page 1
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350Moyle case politics by denigration — Sir John Marshall Press, 14 April 1978, Page 1
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