He asked Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners president Dr Jonathan Fox, of Auckland, for a summary of the issues as he departed a political forum, which was part of the college's four-day annual conference in Queenstown.
The minister joined National associate spokeswoman for health Jo Goodhew on the forum, which was chaired by former speaker of the house Sir Robin Gray and attended by about 300 delegates.
Representatives from both Labour and National said they valued GPs highly and asked for more reaction from them, given that much of the research on primary care was from overseas and did not always reflect New Zealand's circumstances.
During the forum and in response to a question from the audience, Mr Cunliffe said he did not see the position of GP as the "default option" if a doctor was not a qualified specialist.
The Government's review of assisting the development of the GP's role had not yet gone to Cabinet and so he could not comment, but "it's something we continue to have a good dialogue with the college about", the minister said.
A questioner criticised New Zealand's 21 district health boards and 81 primary health organisations for causing "fractured, dysfunctional management" and asked the panel if it was a sustainable situation.
Ms Goodhew said National believed health care red tape had doubled and that there was a "workforce crisis".
"National will look to minimise the bureaucracy and return money to frontline professionals . . .
We have been told [doctors] don't want a major overhaul but do want to see changes . . .
We need to look to you for guidance."
Mr Cunliffe said the growth in non-clinical staff numbers had been lower than the growth in clinical staff and 60% of $2 billion spent on the health system over the past nine years had gone on rebalancing salaries.
He said the DHB system was working better than the previous two models - area hospital boards and the "failed experiment" of marketisation in the 1990s.
The Government believed in "patient outcome-driven modernisation", he said.
When quizzed about incentives to bolster the health workforce, Ms Goodhew said National was looking at voluntary bonding with student loan write-offs to encourage doctors to practise in regions where it was hard to recruit, along with funding for more medical student places.
Mr Cunliffe said there was "high potential" in voluntary bonding of medical graduates but Labour did not believe compulsory rural immersion programmes should be incorporated.
He said there was not a great exodus of New Zealand talent - 75% of New Zealanders who travelled overseas returned.
The minister said the Government's priorities were the expansion of voluntary bonding and examining the factors that drove morale.
