In a frosty and combative post-election interview on Radio New Zealand this morning, Mr Cunliffe admitted his party's result was "not a great" one, but said it was also "not a result that is all bad for us either", pointing to winning six of the seven Maori seats and winning two new MPs in Manukau East and Kelston.
However, he was pushed on questions about what went wrong for him and how much responsibility he should take as leader for the party's failure in the polls - hitting the lowest election result since 1922.
Mr Cunliffe insisted the loss at the ballot box was "the same proportionate decline" that was seen in results polled by the Green Party and across the left, adding: "It's not specific to the Labour party."
It had been "an unprecedented campaign", dominated by third parties and people from outside the main opposition, he said, which had "denied the opposition air time".
Issues like Dirty Politics and Government spying claims had in fact hurt opposition parties instead of National, he said.
"You would think the impact would be on the Government party responsible, but the reality is that if one is not able to get the airtime because others are dominating it, that impacts the opposition as well," he told the broadcaster.
He also condemned a "rotating chairs" of leadership saying it would hurt the Labour Party in the long run, and re-iterated his intention to lead the party through a three year campaign to the 2017 election.
"Of course I take responsibility for it [the election loss] ... but at the end of the day we need to move forward, and our campaign to win in 2017 starts right now," he said.
"I'm simply saying there's a job of work that needs to be done and I believe there's a mandate needed for change and I will be offering myself to drive that change."
The Labour Party needed "an upgrade", he said, pushing to drive a "mandate to change, to rebuild and modernise this party".
"Ultimately it's a matter for the party to decide whether they want to accept that challenge," he said. "What I believe is we can win in 2017, and I believe that I can be part of that solution, I don't believe that just rotating chairs of leaders deals with that issue."
- By Patrice Dougan of APNZ
