Mr Moore's health problems mean he is retiring in December, giving Prime Minister Mr Key the chance to replace him with a cabinet minister.
Labour leader Andrew Little has previously said he intends to provide a new look for his team before Christmas, but how he can do that with such a limited number of MPs will need some imagination.
Mr Key will have the luxury of five or six cabinet ministers retiring and his team next year will have a fresh look.
Long-serving Labour MP Phil Goff has announced he is standing to become mayor of Auckland.
Mr Goff has indicated he will continue to represent Mount Roskill but will pay his own expenses when on mayoral duties.
In the last four weeks of the local body campaign, he will not accept pay from Parliament - something which may be difficult as there are set rules around pay for MPs.
As an electorate MP, it is not possible for Mr Little to stand Mr Goff down and bring in someone new.
Therefore, Labour is hamstrung with an MP whose heart is not really in the fight.
After decades of being paid from the public purse, it is unlikely Mr Goff will be persuaded to stand down for a by-election; a risky tactic anyway, given National has the means to swamp a safe Labour seat with money and personnel and turn it into a blue-ribbon seat.
There are a limited number of options for Mr Little.
He wants to lead a so-called new team into next year so the voting public can see Labour is a government-in-waiting.
But surely, if someone is going to set the political stage on fire from the Opposition benches, they will have done so by now.
The Greens have stolen the thunder of Labour by electing relatively unknown James Shaw as co-leader.
Mr Shaw has hogged headlines and is often the first call for media when seeking an alternative opinion to the one espoused by the Government.
Labour's top three MPs, Mr Little, deputy-leader Annette King and finance spokesman Grant Robertson are all from Wellington.
With South Island MPs, perhaps the exception being Dunedin North MP David Clark, seemingly offside with the hierarchy, the odds are stacked against Mr Little being able to present anything to stir the blood of southern Labour supporters.
In all honesty, former failed leaders, Mr Goff, David Shearer and David Cunliffe must go.
However, their personal interests outweigh the best interests of the party, despite anything they may say.
Labour does not look or sound united.
Mr Key has the luxury of numbers but he will need to tread warily.
There are talented members of Mr Key's caucus who deserve promotion ahead of some old hands who have let their leader down with some injudicious actions.
Time serving is not an automatic right to promotion.
There are members of Parliament in every party who need to look to a future other than being paid from the public purse.
Mr Key looks and sounds tired. He also needs a new challenge. National would have a very different future without him at the helm.
His high level personal popularity continues, despite falling slightly recently.
So far, National does not look vulnerable to a challenge from the Left but without Mr Key, things would be less certain.
What remains important is the need for both leaders to consider taking more women into their top teams.
For those who say promotion should be on merit, look closely at the records of those women in Parliament.
Most of them have achieved much outside of Parliament and have earned their right to higher office.
