[1] He received his secondary education at Waitaki Boys' High School (1946–1951), where he was dux in 1951, and then studied mathematics at Auckland University College (1952–1956), from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1957.
[3] McLean represented the Tarawera electorate from the 1978 general election[4] to 1990, when he retired and was replaced by Max Bradford.
In 2017 he was quoted in A History of Australasian Economic Thought by Alex Millimow: 'Ian McLean, a New Zealand politician with economics training, colourfully described his country as a market economy where markets are seldom permitted to operate efficiently, together with a centrally-planned economy without a central plan.
The allocation of resources is to a large extent determined neither by the market mechanisms nor government decision, but by historical patterns fossilised in institutional procedures.
[5] On retiring as an MP, McLean chaired the Earthquake Commission and was one of the first in the world to use dynamic financial analysis (DFA) commercially.