'It's life or death': Labour MP slams National's broken promise

Barbara Edmonds was four years old when she lost her mother to cancer.

The Labour MP is among the thousands of Kiwis who have lost a loved one to the disease. In 2021, Te Whatu Ora reported 10,488 cancer deaths.

Edmonds is livid that the National Party has not followed through on its election promise to fund 13 new cancer drugs.

The government vowed to provide $280 million over four years for the cost of the drugs but its promise was not fulfilled on Budget Day (30 May).

Devastated cancer patients will now have to wait another year, at least, when that funding is made available.

Watch Barbara Edmonds' full interview on Pacific Mornings.

In 2021, there were close to 28,000 new cancer registrations across New Zealand, with the total number of patients “steadily increasing” over the past 10 years, Te Whatu Ora said.

Edmonds has been Labour's finance spokesperson for almost six months, the first woman in the role and the first Pacific person across the major parties to hold a finance position.

She told Pacific Mornings’ William Terite that the government betrayed Kiwis, particularly cancer patients and their whānau.

“My dad brought me and my three older brothers and sisters up, you know, he was a widower at the age of 40, with four kids under the age of 11.

“He brought us up on the benefit, that's because he wanted to obviously help us transition from losing our mum, help settle the family, and then he went back to Auckland College of Education, back in the days to restudy and retrain to be a social worker.

“I have a large family but actually, very early on, we only had a couple of kids, we only had $8 in the hand after you did all the bills for the week, that's you know all the rent, all the power, all that stuff, we only had $8 in the hand, so I know what it's like to sweat for every dollar.

“That's not even putting aside savings, that's just what we had in our hands at the end of the week. So in a cost of living crisis, I'm really, really clear on what the pain is that a number of our families are experiencing at the moment.”

During her Budget address, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced there was no funding for the 13 cancer drugs.

Willis has since been accused of funding potholes over cancer patients, but this week told media the government was “actively working” on funding the promised cancer drugs.

She said she could only imagine how cancer patients and their families felt, adding that the government was taking the necessary steps to ensure that more cancer drugs were funded in the future.

But Edmonds said it was “incredibly manipulative and cynical” for National to promise that they would fund the cancer drugs, “specifically 13 cancer drugs”.

The total number of cancer patients in Aotearoa has steadily increased over the past 10 years, Te Whatu Ora says. Photo/supplied

“This is life or death for some people,” the member for Mana told Terite.

“So they would have voted for National in last year's election, even if they hadn't naturally voted for them, knowing that, well, they're going to have a lifeline, you know, they're going to have an extension to their life.

“My mum passed away from cancer, I would have been telling all my family and friends to vote for National if it meant that it would give her more time.”

Edmonds said National knew the process would need to go through the government agency, Pharmac - Te Pātaka Whaioranga, and it would be difficult to deliver.

Te Pātaka Whaioranga is proposing to fund more treatments for people with a type of blood cancer, multiple myeloma, and some people with a blood cell disorder, myelodysplastic syndrome.

The funding would benefit more than 800 New Zealanders and improve their quality of life.

“What you need to do is keep investing into Pharmac to allow that independent process to take its course,” Edmonds said.

“The reason being is that why should I say my mum's cancer drugs are more important than your uncle's cancer drugs?

“Or why should I say my diabetes drugs are more important than your blood pressure drugs? So that's why there was an independent process set up.”

Instead of an apology for the broken government promise, Health Minister Shane Reti told RNZ’s Checkpoint they would be funding new cancer treatments as soon as they could.

Reti was asked if he would like to apologise to cancer patients who thought the government was going to deliver on its cancer drugs promise, but he said they "could have communicated better" about whether it was funding 13 additional cancer treatments starting this year.

Minister of Health and Minister for Pacific Peoples Shane Reti has offered "encouragement" that the government will be funding new cancer treatments. Photo/supplied