Early Career
Parliament of New Zealand | ||||
Years | Term | Electorate | Party | |
1960–1963 | 33rd | Tamaki | National | |
1963–1966 | 34th | Tamaki | National | |
1966–1969 | 35th | Tamaki | National | |
1969–1972 | 36th | Tamaki | National | |
1972–1975 | 37th | Tamaki | National | |
1975–1978 | 38th | Tamaki | National | |
1978–1981 | 39th | Tamaki | National | |
1981–1984 | 40th | Tamaki | National | |
1984–1987 | 41st | Tamaki | National | |
1987–1990 | 42nd | Tamaki | National | |
1990–1991 | 43rd | Tamaki | National |
In 1939 Muldoon joined the New Zealand Army during the Second World War, and served in the South Pacific and in Italy. While in Italy he served in the same battalion (Divisional Cavalry) as two other future National Party colleagues, Duncan MacIntyre and Jack Marshall. He completed his training as an accountant, sitting his final exams to become an accountant while in Italy. He returned to New Zealand after the war as the country's first fully qualified cost accountant.
In March 1947 Muldoon joined a newly founded branch of the Junior Nationals, the youth wing of the conservative New Zealand National Party. He quickly became active in the party, making two sacrificial-lamb bids for Parliament against entrenched but vulnerable Labour incumbents in 1954 (Mount Albert) and 1957 (Waitemata). But in 1960 he won election as MP for the suburban Auckland electorate of Tamaki, winning against Bob Tizard, who had taken the former National seat in 1957. In 1960, an electoral swing brought Keith Holyoake to power as Prime Minister of the Second National Government. Muldoon would represent the Tamaki constituency for the next 32 years.
Read more about this topic: Robert Muldoon
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