Reti ShanePAE ORA (HEALTHY FUTURES) (PROVISION OF BREAST CANCER SCREENING SERVICES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingDr SHANE RETI (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. The National Party is putting to the vote tonight that the—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Poto Williams): Order! Order! I require the member to read the words about reading the bill for the first time. You should have that on your run sheet.Dr SHANE RETI: Thank you. I move That the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (Provision of Breast Cancer Screening Services) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Health Committee to consider the bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Poto Williams): Kia ora.Dr SHANE RETI: Thank you. The National Party is putting to the vote tonight that the breast cancer screening age be increased for New Zealand women. The National Party backs clinicians to do a better job with cancer management for New Zealanders and we will give them the tools that they need. We agree with clinicians in the Breast Cancer Foundation that free breast cancer screening needs to be increased for women between 70 to 74 years of age inclusive.Increasing the breast cancer screening age was the National Party's first campaign 2023 health manifesto policy and we were sending three signals: (1) that we care about New Zealand women (2) that we care about cancer and (3) that we care about preventative health. We want to lift our collective cancer game and start benchmarking ourselves against other countries that we want to compare ourselves to. For women in Australia the screening age is 74 but not for New Zealand women. For women in Canada the screening age is 74 but not for New Zealand women. For women in Australia the screening age is 74 but not for New Zealand women.Increasing the breast cancer screening age is estimated to save 65 New Zealand women per year and we value every single one of those lives saved; this Labour Government does not. The Breast Cancer Foundation writes One woman a month will needlessly lose her life to breast cancer thanks to the Government's latest refusal to uphold its promise of lifting the breast cancer screening age to 74 says Breast Cancer Foundation NZ. The Government has just responded to a select committee's investigation into breast screening saying it is unable to immediately roll out free mammograms to women aged 70-74 despite committing to do this in 2017. Parliament's Petitions Committee recommended in March that the Government should consider extending the screening age from 69 to 74 after receiving a petition by Breast Cancer Foundation NZ signed by 10600 people." I will talk more about this petition further.We agree with the Breast Cancer Foundation. This Labour Government does not support women with breast cancer. In 2016 Jacinda Ardern received a 10000-signature petition to extend breast cancer screening. She stood there smiling shaking hands and taking photos. She committed to extending breast cancer screening and then did nothing—even worse she didn't even bother to advocate for increased screening.I know that from a ministerial question from 27 October last year to the Minister with delegated responsibility for women Ayesha Verrall the current Minister of Health. To Minister Ayesha Verrall October 27 2022: "Has she received any written communications … from the Prime Minister advocating for increased breast cancer screening amongst women aged 70 to 74"? Answer: "No." Jacinda Ardern had the photo moment. She smiled; she waved. She had the power of Prime Minister and then she did nothing.In 2017 it was one of the five health priorities for the coalition Government and still they did nothing. Breast cancer screening is a broken promise for this Labour Government broken many times over. In 2021 Ayesha Verrall is still the Associate Minister for women's health responsible for breast cancer. She received a memorandum on 13 December 2021. The memorandum is from the Cancer Control Agency titled "Summary Evidence for Breast Screening amongst women aged 70 to 74 years." The memorandum states "Extending breast cancer screening to women aged 70 to 74 is reasonable." I will repeat that. The Government's own memorandum states "Extending breast cancer screening to women aged 70 to 74 is reasonable." and they do nothing.The memorandum also talks about prioritisation which this Labour Government then clings to as a safety net in an attempt to excuse and forgive lazy and incompetent decisionmaking in this matter. Put simply this Labour Government buried and refused to act on the evidence that increasing breast cancer screening for New Zealand women is not only reasonable but important. We know they buried it because on 4 November last year I again asked the Minister for women Ayesha Verrall a question: "In what written communications with officials or colleagues if any did she express a need to progress breast cancer screening to include 70-74 year olds"? Answer: "I have not written to the Ministry of Health [Health New Zealand or the Māori Health Authority.]"—she did nothing. This Labour Government has received all the evidence that increasing breast cancer screening is important and saves lives and is reasonable and they've buried it. They don't understand cancer; they simply don't care.Even their own select committee in February this year in response to a petition to increase the breast cancer screening age said this: "Health New Zealand accepts that international evidence confirms that the eligible population for breast cancer screening should be extended to include people aged between 70 and 74 years." With the Government's own agency Health New Zealand accepting the evidence for and recommending breast cancer screening be extended surely there is nothing more to say or do? However the Government are desperately trying to justify their lack of interest by hiding behind the screening IT system and the need for an IT upgrade. This is a poor excuse and can be easily exposed for the sham that it is.There are three points to talk to: firstly increasing breast screening from 70 to 74 years deals with an already known audience. They're already on the register and all that's being captured is a further two mammograms two years apart. This is not a redesign. Second in May 2021 Ayesha Verrall announced $55 million for the proposed screening IT upgrade and committed that it would be up and running in two years. Well here we are and where is it? It was never going to happen. The Minister confessed in written parliamentary questions that only $5 million of the $55 million has been spent—barely 15 percent of the funding for breast cancer upgrade—and why? Because this Labour Government spent the money elsewhere because this Labour Government decided health reforms were more important than breast cancer because this Labour Government decided cycle bridges were more important than breast cancer and because this Labour Government decided a warehouse storing expiring rapid antigen tests was more important than breast cancer. They are wrong. The four-year costs for this programme are in the order of $30 million. Compared to this Government's wasteful spending it should be a priority.The third point around the IT upgrade is a revealing Cabinet paper released a few weeks ago confirming that the IT upgrade was actually never going to include breast cancer screening anyway. The business case in the Cabinet paper makes it very clear that the IT upgrade was never going to go beyond "45 to 69". The purpose of the $55 million IT upgrade is "maintaining mortality gains and early cancer detection for women 45 to 69 who participate in screening". The IT upgrade was never going to include expanded breast cancer screening anyway. It is a poor excuse. I don't buy it. The Breast Cancer Foundation doesn't buy it. New Zealand women don't buy it.In conclusion I challenge any party here tonight to vote down increasing breast cancer screening for New Zealand women. If Labour MPs vote against this bill tonight then I say to New Zealand women who care about breast cancer: take a position pull on a jersey and take this Labour Government to the polls in October and vote them out. Breast cancer is too important to be left behind. National backs New Zealand women and we back their fight against cancer. Thank you."