It will be called the Future of Work Commission and, with a brief to engage with the public, it will clearly be one of the ways in which Labour will try to reconnect with the New Zealanders after losing support in three successive elections.
"We will work with New Zealanders from the smoko room to the boardroom," said Mr Little, a former head of the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union.
"Labour is going to spend the next three years focused on solutions, not sitting on the sidelines complaining."
Mr Little said people told him on the last election trail that they did not see themselves in what Labour was saying. They didn't feel anybody was looking out for them.
"Today I have a clear message about that: to people working hard to get a small business off the ground, to people choosing to work on contract, people who are their own bosses, and are thinking about maybe being able to take on someone else - we get it.
"And the Labour Party will work for you."
Mr Little gave his speech to a breakfast audience of about 100 unionists, party activists, business and community leaders arranged by the Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett.
Mr Robertson, Deputy leader Annette King and a handful of MPs attended as did unionists Robert Reid and Jill Ovens, Auckland councillors George Wood and Dick Quax, former MP John Tamihere and former Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard.
Changing nature of work
Mr Little said the Labour Party had a challenge to update its definition of working people in world where the nature of work of work itself was changing.
His own son, Cam, was aged 13 and it was obvious the workforce he was going to enter would be totally different from the one he entered as a lawyer for the EPMU.
"New technology is rapidly transforming our world and our work. It's hard to understate just how important these changes are going to be for working people."
One study last year showed that 47 per cent of all jobs in the US were at high risk from automation.
At the same time, more people, especially younger people embraced the new economy and were working to make their own ideas succeed.
"We need a Government that is going to champion those people while fighting to make sure that no one is left out or left behind by an economy that is changing in ways we could never have predicted."
Social contract
Mr Little said "the social contract" was breaking down - the contract of the Government setting good rules to ensure certainty and fair rewards, with the knowledge there would be support if you needed it.
And it was not just a problem for the low paid.
"More and more people on good incomes, mid-level incomes, are finding it harder to save, harder to pay the mortgage, harder to keep their businesses afloat, harder to get ahead.
"People are feeling the squeeze even though they are working their guts out."
He said he wasn't blaming just the current Government for "this new era of squeeze and insecurity".
It was caused by the fundamental settings of the economy.
It was about the fact that too much investment capital was going into speculation instead of the next great Kiwi business that would create jobs.
"it's about the fact that the average house in Auckland earned more money last year than the average worker."
Personal background
In his speech Mr Little touched on his upbringing in Taranaki saying he had "a pretty classic Kiwi upbringing".
His father was a teacher and his mother was a secretary for an optician.
"They taught me hard work, respect for others and, most of all, to think for myself.
"Given that they were both committed National Party voters, they probably did a better job of that than they would have liked."
He said he was driven by the need to see justice done and see injustice challenged.
And he related a case of his when he was a union lawyer that sounded similar to the case of the Gull service station owner who made workers pay for takings lost through drive-offs.
A service station owner claimed $100 was missing from the till, possibly the result of a drive off and that a meat pie had been stolen.
He had insisted that the two staff on duty each pay $50 and when one them, Daniel, refused he was sacked.
Mr Little represented Daniel who challenged the unfairness dished out to him and produced a receipt for the pie.
"The reason I chose to work for people like Daniel then is the same reason I chose to enter politics a few years ago," he said.
"I believe that the law and Government policy should provide safety and security for people and a level-playing field so they can get on with making the best of their own lives."
Non-stop schedule
The speech is the latest event in a non-stop schedule for Mr Little since he was elected leader on November 18 from a field of four, including Mr Robertson.
A week ago he announced his reshuffle and rankings of the caucus.
Over the following two days his aggressive attacks on Prime Minister John Key in the House lifted Labour's morale, particularly the day he told Mr Key to "cut the crap".
Mr Little focused in Parliament on close links between Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater and both Mr Key's office and Mr Key.
It is considered to be one of the worst weeks politically for Mr Key in the six years he has been Prime Minister.
A report by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Cheryl Gwyn, confirmed that a former senior adviser in his office, Jason Ede, had passed information to Mr Slater about an SIS briefing with which to attack former Labour leader Phil Goff and that Mr Ede had even written a blog post on the matter for Mr Slater.
Mr Key was also forced to correct a denial he had given to Parliament in stating he had not had contact with Mr Slater over the Gwyn report, when in fact he had been in text contact with him two nights earlier.
