THREE KEY FACTS: The Government is putting an extra $604 million into Pharmac to fund up to 26 new cancer treatments and 28 other medicines The National Party campaigned on delivering 13 new cancer drugs but did not include it in the Budget. The first drugs will start to be provided from November and will benefit about 175,000 people Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Parliamentary Press Gallery in 2007.
OPINION Well, that’s certainly an effective way to get people to shut up about a delay in delivering on a promise: double the size of it once you do deliver on it. It is ridiculous to get nit-picky about the massive $604 million injection into Pharmac needed for National’s delayed delivery on the cancer drugs it had promised during the campaign. The good in it far outweighs the fraught political tale of how it came to pass.
It’s great news for many cancer patients – and has ended up being good news for a fair few others as well, given Pharmac now has enough funding both for a raft of new cancer drugs (26!) and new medicines for other conditions. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is clearly also hoping it is also good news for his Government and National. The failure to deliver on those cancer drugs in the Budget had become a lingering nightmare for him.
And if you’ve failed to deliver, you’re best to make up for it by over-delivering. To get there, it has ended costing twice as much as National .
