Finance Minister Nicola Willis has told New Zealanders affected by a lack of funding for promised cancer treatments that the Government will be in a position to make an announcement "very soon".
Willis accepted the Government could have done a better job of communicating the process to New Zealanders relying on the drugs to live.
She also said — on TVNZ's Q+A programme this morning — that just under 3000 families will receive the maximum $250 a fortnight as a result of tax changes.
The Finance Minister accepted the Govt could have done a better job of communicating the process to NZers who were relying on the drugs to live. (Source: Q and A)
National campaigned on spending a total of $280m on 13 treatments that would have helped fight bladder, bowel, liver, lung, kidney and head and neck cancers in addition to melanoma.
It was supposed to be funded by reinstating the $5 prescription payment.
"We understand how it important it is to those patients, to their families, to their loved ones, and we are going to meet that commitment with urgency," said Willis, who delivered her first Budget on Wednesday.
But Willis said the Government inherited some "fiscal bombs" — including a shortfall in funding for medicine purchasing agency Pharmac that was "far larger" than previously thought.
"That meant we had to find $1.8b just to sustain access to life saving medicines."
Vital medicines would have been de-listed if the Government hadn't found that money, she said.
The next step would be to create and formally cost a policy for purchasing those additional cancer medicines — work which, Willis said, has begun.
"I've spoken with [Associate Minister of Health] David Seymour and [Health Minister] Dr Shane Reti in recent days and they are confident we are going to come up with a fix very soon."
She said there were three options to procure the cancer drugs: breaking Pharmac convention and directing purchase; setting up a cancer control authority to purchase them; or providing "significant" funding to Pharmac to allow the purchase of both the cancer drugs and wider drugs.
"We understand the urgency. We are going to make those decisions so that people can understand on what date they will be able to access those."
In 2019, Nicola Willis tweeted a quote from then National leader Simon Bridges' speech at the party conference:
When asked about the tweet, she said the speech resulted in the creation of the Cancer Control Agency who compiled a list of cancer drugs to be funded and reiterated the Government's commitment.
"We will be prioritising funding for cancer drugs."
Tax cuts of $250 a week for fewer than 3000 families
The Finance Minister was also asked about Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's repeated campaign promise of tax cuts totalling $250 a fortnight for families.
She acknowledged there were examples where Luxon "didn't use the phrase" of "up to $250" and that just under 3000 families would receive $250 a fortnight.
Willis said two groups of people had been identified who could be worse off as a result of tax changes — totalling 9000 people.
"One [group] we uncovered when we put together the tax calculator, it's about 200 people, and it's about the interaction between the independent vendor credit credit and the working families credit."
Work was being done on a solution to this interaction, she said.
A second group included people who were on a benefit for any part of the year, a group who Willis said were "always affected by tax changes".
"I want to be clear, we are not changing the size of your benefit."
When asked if it was correct that there were three times as many households who would be worse off because of tax changes than the number of households receiving the maximum tax cuts, Willis said it was "selective picking of the data".
"What you're leaving out is the millions of New Zealanders that are better off."
Q+A with Jack Tame is Public Interest Journalism funded through New Zealand On Air
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