David Cunliffe in 2008

The Listener profiled David Cunliffe in 2008. Some extracts:

First off, new Minister of Health David Cunliffe doesn’t want to be Prime Minister. “No. it’s a bastard of a job and I have a young family. I don’t think the two would go together.”

They must grow up quickly!

He is a Labour Health Minister, yet has (through his wife) private health insurance. He’s in a Labour Government, yet has long advocated private-public partnerships for infrastructure works. 

Does The Standard know this?

In his final years as a diplomat, Cunliffe clearly sought more. He later wrote: “Foreign Affairs had provided a great education in ‘how the world worked’. But it was a Government perspective – and I believe then, as I do now, that only in partnership with the business and community sectors can Government truly be effective.”

And this one:

Cunliffe’s centrist tendencies are at odds with Labour’s roots. He would be, for example, the first health minister to favour private health insurance. “My wife has private health insurance with her work. We have no intention of discontinuing that.”

David Cunliffe is doing what every good United States politician does. You veer to the grassroots for the primary, and then veer to the centre for the actual election. What this means is we have no real idea what policies could emerge from a Cunliffe leadership.