Campbell HamishDr HAMISH CAMPBELL (National—Ilam): I rise to bring attention to a silent enemy that is affecting countless lives in New Zealand and that is cancer. While it's not quite countless and we can actually put a number on it—it's going to affect probably 25000 New Zealanders this yeareach one of us has probably either been touched personally by cancer or we know of friends or family members who have been affected by cancer. Most recently for my family there's been the passing of my cousin's daughter at the age of 32—Rosaria—and I want to acknowledge all families that are going through that struggle and that loss.I have a unique connection to cancer. I've spent a large portion of my professional career as a cancer scientist both here and overseas. I want to pay special tribute to a special person that's played a big role in that career and that is my PhD supervisor Professor Antony Braithwaite of the University of Otago who has actually just announced his retirement as of next week. I don't think he will be really retiring; I think it will be more symbolic—well I hope it will be—and I hope he can contribute a lot of his knowledge to the future generations going forward. Professor Braithwaite is a leading world expert in one of the most important tumour suppressor proteins in the human cell and that is p53. I want to acknowledge his contribution to our understandings of how cancer arises. With over 150 publications he is well-known worldwide. It is important because cancer does not discriminate. It strikes individuals of all ages all backgrounds and all walks of life. It brings fear. It brings pain and uncertainty not only to those diagnosed but also to their loved ones as well and that's why on this side of the House we are committed to driving better outcomes for Kiwis with cancer. This includes enhanced screening: we're increasing breast cancer screening eligibility for those between the age of 70 and 74. We've launched an additional mobile breast screening unit which will take the national fleet to 13 further increasing access for up to 6000 people in New Zealand. But don't worry males are also included: we are funding South Island PET scanning accessibility which is especially important for males with prostate cancer. Once cancer is detected we also need to make sure that we can get treatment on time because this is a very stressful time if you've just been told that you have cancer and that's why we're introducing a health target that 90 percent of patients who receive a diagnosis will receive cancer management within 31 days of the decision to treat. Not only that; we're going to ensure that there's better treatment options. We're funding two new cancer drugs for breast cancer and also acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and on a side note I have a special connection with AML. It was the first cancer that I ever worked on and I discovered a genetic mutation in a Christchurch family with a predisposition to leukaemia. But I digress and that's what happens if you don't have targets. So getting back on track we're also mindful of people in the regions who need to travel to get cancer treatment or actually all treatment so we're increasing the compensation for mileage and accommodation rates for those who have to travel for treatment. We're also helping deliver the first provincial PET/CT scanner and that's going to go into Whangārei. I appreciate my time is going quickly. So I do just want to zoom out more generally from cancer and talk about our healthcare more generally and the targets that we're going to introduce into the system because as they say if you can't measure it you can't manage it and that's probably what's happened for the last five years.The Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti recently announced a number of targets saying that we're going to have a vigorous new direction in health from the previous Government and we're going to deliver for New Zealanders. Now I've talked about faster cancer treatments but our targets also include improving immunisation for kids: we want 95 percent of children to be immunised by the age of 24 months. We want shorter stays in emergency departments (EDs) with 95 percent of patients being discharged or transferred from ED within six hours. We want shorter wait times for first specialist assessments: we want 95 percent of patients to wait less than four months for a first specialist appointment. We want shorter wait times for people with elective treatment: we want 95 percent of patients to wait less than four months for elective treatment.It is important that we are ambitious in trying to achieve better health outcomes for New Zealanders. The healthcare system went backwards under the previous Government and it failed to drive targets. Having effective targets and reporting on them publicly helps identify where the problems are and we'll take action to improve it. I know the other side is shouting because they don't want better health outcomes but I do just want to close and thank all the hard work of our healthcare staff who work across the country to deliver better health outcomes for all New Zealanders.