David Cunliffe

Who is David Cunliffe?

David Richard Cunliffe HFIITP is a New Zealand politician and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. He is the sitting member of parliament for New Lynn, West Auckland. He served as the Minister of Health and Minister for Communications and Information Technology for the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand from October 2007 until November 2008.

After the 2008 general election defeat of the Labour Party, and the resignation of Helen Clark as the party leader, Cunliffe was appointed the party's finance spokesman and number 3 on the front bench. After Labour lost the 2011 general election and Phil Goff stood down as party leader, Cunliffe ran for the leadership, but lost to David Shearer.

On 26 August 2013, Cunliffe announced a second leadership bid after David Shearer's departure from the leadership, running in the New Zealand Labour Party leadership election, 2013, and was elected leader on 15 September 2013.