Eyewitness News - Devaluation

These remarkable interviews — filmed on 16 July 1984, two days after the General Election — see TVNZ’s Richard Harman talking to defeated Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, then to PM-in-waiting David Lange. With the two sharply divided on the need to devalue the dollar, the country is on the brink of an economic and constitutional crisis, and the stand-off plays out on the nation’s TV screens. Lange (in his first studio interview as PM) has the moral high ground but no power to act until he is sworn in; while a defiant Muldoon acts as if the election never happened.

This Prime Minister outgoing, beaten, has, in the course of one television interview tried to do more damage to the New Zealand economy than any statement ever made.

– David Lange

Key Cast & Crew

Richard Harman

Presenter