1. David Richard Cunliffe was born on 30 April 1963 and 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.
42 Facts About David Cunliffe
1. 2.
David Cunliffe was Member of Parliament for Titirangi and then New Lynn for the Labour Party between 1999 and 2017.
3.
David Cunliffe 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.
4.
David Cunliffe's family moved to Te Kuiti, then to Pleasant Point.
5.
David 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.
6.
David Cunliffe worked as a diplomat from 1987 to 1994 and gained a Diploma in Social Sciences in economics from Massey University in 1993.
7.
David Cunliffe 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.
8.
David Cunliffe worked as a management consultant with The Boston Consulting Group in Auckland from 1995 to 1999.
9.
David Cunliffe was first elected to Parliament in the 1999 election, standing as the Labour candidate for the Titirangi seat.
10.
Labour formed a new Government and David Cunliffe served as Chair of the Commerce Select Committee and sat on the Finance and Expenditure and Regulations Review select committees.
11.
David 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.
12.
David Cunliffe retained his seat in the 2008,2011, and 2014 elections, during which the Labour Party was in Opposition.
13.
David Cunliffe 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.
14.
David 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.
15.
David Cunliffe officially resigned from Parliament in April 2017, near enough to the 2017 election to avoid the need for a by-election.
16.
David 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.
17.
David Cunliffe had previously held the Communications and Information Technology portfolios outside of Cabinet.
18.
David 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.
19.
In May 2006 David 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.
20.
On 30 June 2008 David Cunliffe was conferred the title of Honorary Fellow of the NZCS by the New Zealand Computer Society, the professional body of the ICT profession in recognition of his significant contribution to the ICT sector.
21.
David Cunliffe was promoted to the Health portfolio in 2007, replacing Pete Hodgson.
22.
In February 2008, as the Minister of Health, David Cunliffe dismissed the Hawke's Bay District Health Board over political, monetary and conflict of interest troubles.
23.
David Cunliffe had been touted as a future leader of the party, and party insiders had suggested he seriously considered challenging Phil Goff as leader in the aftermath of the 2008 election.
24.
Grant Robertson and David Cunliffe Parker entered the race, but subsequently backed David Cunliffe Shearer, who won the high-profile race.
25.
However, David Cunliffe was accused of demonstrating disloyalty and subsequently stripped of his front bench position and his portfolios.
26.
David Cunliffe was expected to make another bid for the leadership but did not confirm his candidacy immediately.
27.
David Cunliffe received strong backing from the party's grassroots membership, although his leadership bid was supported by only one-third of the caucus.
28.
David Cunliffe's leadership was opposed by many Labour MPs; several of his colleagues came to see him as "divisive, ambitious, self-absorbed and self-confident to a messianic level".
29.
David Cunliffe was commenting on domestic violence against women by men.
30.
David Cunliffe's apology was regarded as insensitive, with Prime Minister John Key criticising the remark as "a bit insulting to imply that all men are abusive".
31.
David Cunliffe announced several flagship election policies, including a promise of free GP visits and prescriptions to pregnant women and those aged under 13 and over 65.
32.
David Cunliffe was criticised for taking a three-day skiing holiday in Queenstown at the start of the campaign.
33.
David Cunliffe initially vowed to remain as the party leader, in spite of the poor election result.
34.
On 27 September David Cunliffe formally resigned as leader but announced he was re-contesting in the 2014 party leadership election.
35.
David Cunliffe is generally liberal when it comes to conscience issues.
36.
David Cunliffe voted in favour of the decriminalisation of prostitution, the establishment of civil unions, and the criminalisation of parental corporal punishment.
37.
David Cunliffe voted against defining marriage as between one man and one woman, and in 2013, he voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage.
38.
David Cunliffe has expressed a view that New Zealand will become a republic in the future.
39.
In February 2020, David Cunliffe was appointed as chair of the Selwyn Foundation, one of New Zealand's largest independent charitable providers of services to older people and their families.
40.
David Cunliffe has two sons from his previous marriage to Auckland lawyer Karen Price.
41.
David Cunliffe's father Bill was born in Ngahere in 1915 and worked at the railways.
42.
David Cunliffe is the son of an Anglican minister, and was raised in the Church of England.