David Cunliffe

David Richard Cunliffe (born 30 April 1963) is a New Zealand management consultant and former politician who was Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from September 2013 to September 2014.

Cunliffe was born in Te Aroha on 30 April 1963.

His family moved to Te Kūiti, then to Pleasant Point.

His father, Bill, an Anglican minister, was active in the Labour Party.

As a teenager he won a scholarship to study the International Baccalaureate at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales.

Cunliffe studied politics at the University of Otago, where he was a member of the Otago University Debating Society, and gained a BA with first-class honours.

He worked as a diplomat from 1987 to 1994 and gained a Diploma in Social Sciences (Distinction) in economics from Massey University in 1993.

He was a Fulbright Scholar and Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, including some courses at Harvard Business and Law School in 1994 and 1995, earning a Master of Public Administration.

He worked as a management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in Auckland from 1995 to 1999.

He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Titirangi and then New Lynn for the Labour Party between 1999 and 2017.

Cunliffe was first elected to Parliament in the 1999 election, standing as the Labour candidate for the Titirangi seat.

Labour formed a new Government and Cunliffe served as Chair of the Commerce Select Committee and sat on the Finance and Expenditure and Regulations Review select committees.

Due to boundary changes for the 2002 election Cunliffe contested the seat of New Lynn, which he won.

Cunliffe's party continued in Government for its second term and he was made a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Ministers of Commerce, Finance and Revenue before being elevated to the Executive Council as a Minister outside of Cabinet in 2003.

Cunliffe served as an Associate Minister for Communications and Associate Minister for Information Technology from 2003 before being promoted to the primary portfolios in 2004.

At the 2005 election, Cunliffe was returned in New Lynn with 18,087 votes (8,000 more than his nearest opponent) or 55% of the electorate vote, and also promoted into Cabinet.

Cunliffe retained his seat in the, , and s, during which the Labour Party was in Opposition.

He served various senior roles, including as Finance Spokesperson, but was regarded as "a destabilising force" undermining the leadership of Labour Party leaders Phil Goff and David Shearer.

Cunliffe was appointed to the Cabinet of New Zealand in 2005 for the third term of the Fifth Labour Government, initially as the Minister of Immigration, Minister of Communications, Minister for Information Technology, and Associate Minister for Economic Development.

He had previously held the Communications and Information Technology portfolios outside of Cabinet.

As Immigration Minister in 2006, Cunliffe initiated a major review of the Immigration Act 1987 which, under the oversight of his successors, resulted in the eventual replacement of that Act with the new Immigration Act 2009.

In May 2006 Cunliffe was referred to the Securities Commission by the NZX for commenting on Telecom's future dividend plans, causing Telecom's stock price to drop.

The Securities Commission found that no law had been breached and no action was taken.

He served as the Minister of Health, Minister for Communications and Information Technology and Minister of Immigration for the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand from October 2007 until November 2008.

A Cabinet reshuffle in 2007 saw him lose the Immigration portfolio in exchange for the more senior position as Minister of Health.

The two portfolios were merged into a single ministerial role in 2007.

As Minister for Communications and Information Technology he announced extensive pro-competitive reform of the telecommunications sector, including local loop unbundling and operational separation of then Telecom New Zealand.

Cunliffe was promoted to the Health portfolio in 2007, replacing Pete Hodgson.

He received some attention when, early in the portfolio, he said to his opposition counterpart Tony Ryall, "Mr Ryall, why don't you stay in your box. I'm running this show."

After the defeat of the Labour Party in the 2008 general election, and the resignation of Helen Clark as the party leader, Cunliffe was appointed the party's finance spokesman and number three on the front bench.

On 30 June 2008 Cunliffe was conferred the title of Honorary Fellow of the NZCS (HFNZCS) by the New Zealand Computer Society, the professional body of the ICT profession in recognition of his significant contribution to the ICT sector.

In February 2008, as the Minister of Health, Cunliffe dismissed the Hawke's Bay District Health Board over political, monetary and conflict of interest troubles.

Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott and a number of members of the district voiced opposition to Cunliffe's move as many of the board members were democratically elected.

Following the release of a Health Ministry-commissioned independent report into the matter, Cunliffe referred to the board as a "nasty little nest of self-perpetuating provincial elites".

After Labour lost the 2011 general election and Phil Goff stood down as party leader, Cunliffe ran for the leadership, but narrowly lost to David Shearer.

On 26 August 2013, Cunliffe announced a second leadership bid after David Shearer's departure from the leadership and was elected on 15 September 2013.

Cunliffe was eventually elected as Labour Party Leader and Leader of the Opposition for twelve months in 2013 and 2014, including at the 2014 general election where the party received its worst result in 100 years.

Following Labour's defeat at the general election in September 2014, he resigned as leader of the Labour Party.

Cunliffe's intention to retire from politics was announced by his successor, Andrew Little, on 1 November 2016.

Cunliffe officially resigned from Parliament in April 2017, near enough to the 2017 election to avoid the need for a by-election.