state housing scheme. In 1951 he was nominated to stand for the deputy leadership of the party, but he declined the nomination. Moohan was a critic of Nash's leadership and helped organise a leadership challenge against him in 1954, though in the event switched sides and voted for Nash due to the increasing unpopularity of a leadership change among party members. During the intervening time he also served as the Labour Party's president between 1955 and 1960 and served as Labour's campaign manager in the successful . He was both Minister of Railways and Postmaster-General and Minister of Telegraphs in the Second Labour Government from 1957 to 1960. As one of Labour's most experienced MPs Moohan naturally expected to be given a major ministerial portfolio. It was a surprise for many, and in particular himself, when he was allocated only two relatively innocuous postings. He was not even allocated a front bench seat and made no secret of his disappointment. In 1959 he travelled to Warsaw as a delegate to the International Parliamentary Union and then went to London to study developments in telephone cable and postal procedures. His main accomplishment was the construction of a state of the art rail ferry, the Aramoana, to operate across Cook Strait. Despite his cabinet ranking, Moohan was one of a group of three Labour MPs (the others being Bill Fox and Frank Kitts) who were deeply critical of the decisions made in the "Black Budget". From then on he became the chief critic within the Labour Party of Arnold Nordmeyer the Minister of Finance and was involved in several political manoeuvres to block him from the leadership of the party. However Nordmeyer eventually replaced Nash as leader and Moohan began agitating against the party leadership once again. Alongside Bill Fox and Warren Freer, he was one of the few senior Labour MPs who backed Norman Kirk's successful challenge to Nordmeyer in 1965. Kirk promoted him to the frontbench and he became a close confidant of Kirk's until his death. Death Moohan had been indifferent health and was absent from Parliament for seven weeks in July and August 1966 suffering from a throat complaint. He died at his home in Lower Hutt on 7 February 1967, aged 68, survived by his wife and five children. Coincidentally he died just hours apart from another previous Labour Party president James Roberts. He was buried at