page_title: Brian Talboys
section_title: Colonels' Coup
hierarchical_section_title: Brian Talboys / Colonels' Coup
caption_attribution_description: English: New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Brian Talboys addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, August 1980.
context_page_description: Sir Brian Edward Talboys CH KCB AC PC was a New Zealand politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister for the first two terms of Robert Muldoon's premiership. If the abortive "Colonels' Coup" against Muldoon had been successful, Talboys would have become Prime Minister himself.
context_section_description: In 1980, unhappiness was growing in the National Party about the leadership style of Robert Muldoon, who was seen as increasingly confrontational and dictatorial. This dissatisfaction culminated in the so-called "Colonels' Coup", an attempt by certain members of the party to depose Muldoon and install Talboys as leader instead. The dissidents were led by the three most prominent of Muldoon's younger ministers: Jim McLay, Jim Bolger, and Derek Quigley. A number of people were considered as possible replacements, including George Gair and the three "colonels" themselves, but it was eventually decided that Talboys was the only credible challenger - each of the others was deemed to be unacceptable to at least one faction of the party. Talboys had been performing well as Acting Prime Minister during Muldoon's absence overseas, and was seen (unlike Muldoon) to be likable and diplomatic.
  The largest problem for the plotters was the hesitance of Talboys himself. Talboys, while not particularly supportive of Muldoon's leadership style, refused to actively campaign against his party's leader, and would only make a move if it could be shown beforehand that a majority of the party supported it. While Talboys was willing to accept a leadership change if his colleagues deemed it necessary, he was not willing to actually seek Muldoon's removal himself. Despite Talboys' reluctance, his backers managed to gain a slim majority in caucus in favour of a leadership change. When Muldoon returned to New Zealand, however, he quickly launched a counter-attack, and managed to tip the balance of caucus opinion back towards himself. When the possibility for a leadership vote arrived, Talboys refused to challenge, believing that an open dispute would do huge damage to the party as a whole. No vote was taken, Muldoon remained leader and Talboys remained deputy leader.
  Former National leader Jack Marshall, who was also critical of Muldoon's leadership style, thought Talboys would have been a good Prime Minister if he "had a little more steel in his backbone."
caption: Talboys addressing the UN General Assembly, August 1980.
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