pressure on Rex Mason and several other elderly MPs to retire. A messy deselection of Mason occurred causing bad publicity for Labour ahead of that years election with several party officeholders in Mason's electorate resigning in protest of his forced retirement. 1970s 1970 – An ugly, public leadership struggle between Vernon Cracknell and his deputy John O'Brien for leadership of the Social Credit Party ended in disaster. It cumulated with brawling between supporters of each candidate with considerable damage done to the party's image. O'Brien was the victor, but his blunt and confrontational style caused him to lose his position after only a short time in office. He then split from Social Credit, founding his own New Democratic Party. 1976 – Fitzgerald v Muldoon: Prime Minister Robert Muldoon advised the Governor-General to abolish Labour's superannuation scheme without new legislation. In the case it was found that revoking a law in such a manner without consent of Parliament was illegal under the Bill of Rights 1689. 1976 – Labour MP Gerald O'Brien is charged with molesting two boys, but the case is thrown out. Despite this, he was subsequently deselected as Labour's candidate for and failed to secure re-election as an independent. 1977 – The Moyle Affair: Muldoon accuses high-ranking Labour Party MP Colin Moyle of having been questioned by the police on suspicion of homosexual activities, at that time illegal in New Zealand. Moyle is forced to resign from parliament. 1977 – Muldoon advised Queen Elizabeth II to appoint Sir Keith Holyoake as Governor-General upon Sir Denis Blundell's term ending. As the Governor-General is a non-partisan position this caused much controversy with Labour leader Bill Rowling criticizing the appointment as cronyism and complaining that he had not been consulted on the appointment, stating he would remove Holyoake should Labour win the 1978 general election. 1980s 1980 – The Marginal Loans Affair: Minister of Agriculture Duncan MacIntyre gave a Marginal Land Boards loan to his daughter and son-in-law for a Wellington property they purchased. A public inquiry later concluded that MacIntyre had not acted willfully improperly, though there were several public resignations of National Party officeholders in MacIntyre's East Cape electorate. 1980 – Former deputy mayor of Lower Hutt, John Seddon, applied for the position of Town Clerk of the Porirua City Council. His appointment, shortly before the 1980 local body elections, triggered enormous controversy, with allegations that it had been