David Cunliffe
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| David Cunliffe | |
 David Cunliffe closing the 2005 Auckland BioBlitz |
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Minister of Communications
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| Prime Minister | Helen Clark |
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| Born | Auckland,  New Zealand |
| Constituency | New Lynn |
| Political party | Labour |
| Profession | Business consultant |
| Religion | Anglican |
David Richard Cunliffe is a New Zealand politician. He is a member of the Labour Party, and the sitting member of parliament for New Lynn, West Auckland.
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[edit] Early life
Cunliffe studied politics at Otago University before working first as a diplomat and then as a business consultant. In 1994 and 1995, he was a Fulbright Scholar and Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School.
[edit] Member of Parliament
| Parl. | Electorate | List Pos. | Party |
| 46th | Titirangi | 53 | Labour |
| 47th | New Lynn | 37 | Labour |
| 48th | New Lynn | 31 | Labour |
He was first elected to Parliament in the 1999 elections, standing as the Labour candidate for the Titirangi seat. Since the 2002 election he has represented the seat of New Lynn. At the 2005 elections, Cunliffe was returned with 18,087 votes (8,000 more than his nearest opponent) or 55% of the electorate vote [1].
[edit] Cabinet member
Cunliffe is the Minister of Immigration, Minister of Communications, Minister of Information Technology, and Associate Minister of Economic Development.
In the 2002 - 2005 Parliament he held the ICT portfolios and was Associate Minister of Finance and Revenue, after previously serving as Parliamentary Private Secretary for Finance and Commerce.
During his first term (1999 - 2002) he served as Chair of the Commerce Select Committee, and sat on the Finance and Expenditure and Regulations Review select committees.
In 2006, he announced a major review of the Immigration Act 1987, and local loop unbundling in the telecommunications sector.
[edit] Political views
Cunliffe is a supporter of New Zealand becoming a republic. During the Address-In-Reply debate on 4 September 2002, Cunliffe said: "A New Zealand where we journey together towards maturity as a nation, and to the Commonwealth republic I personally believe we will become before the Treaty turns 200" [2].
