Hugh Templeton on Muldoon right & wrong.

Muldoon-era high-ranking cabinet minister Hugh Templeton stated that as finance minister and as premier Robert Muldoon had forecast the world credit busts of 1987 and the even more seismic one 20 years later that is still bursting around us.

Templeton was deputy minister of finance during the Muldoon years which were in the late 70s and early 80s. He was talking to a National Press Club luncheon at Parliament.

His boss’ strident and frequently re-iterated call for a new Breton Woods convocation, a, demand which began in the early 1980s, was though, said Templeton, marred by one flaw.

This was that that Muldoon’s loner persona, his man-alone character, meant that he was unable to cement in the scheme, especially in the international great councils of finance which he so rigorously attended.

Muldoon, said Templeton, was “unable to institutionalize” in collegial summits his scheme for a new Breton Woods.

Templeton also gave Muldoon high marks for his clairvoyance in forecasting energy shortages and supply problems. In this noted Templeton, his single-minded determination served he and the nation well, and Muldoon rammed through the Clyde hydro development.

From a background in diplomacy, Hugh Templeton was a trademark National Party cabinet minister for 10 years and as minister for Trade & Industry is usually credited with sheeting home the CER free trade agreement with Australia.