Here is the News - 1984 Snap Election Anouncement

Television (Excerpts) – 1992

In this excerpt from 1992 documentary Here is the News, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon throws the political dice one last time. Ex TVNZ political reporter Jim Greenhough recalls the June night he and his colleagues crowded into a Beehive hallway to witness a visibly inebriated Muldoon call a snap election date of 14 July 1984. The Labour Party went on to win decisively; some say this ill-judged appearance was the moment that the Muldoon era sped towards its end. Muldoon's slurred answer to reporter Richard Griffin's question about election timing is one of Aotearoa's most famous political quotes.

Known for drinking whiskey, Prime Minister Rob Muldoon was on the brandy and dry the night he called a snap election in 1984. Although the decision to switch tipples was ultimately immaterial in his downfall it stood as a symbol of a man on the edge defiantly floundering his way through political turmoil.
– Writer Matt Stewart on Rob Muldoon's fateful captain's call, The Dominion Post, 27 November 2015