The news – as brayed from the Beehive – was surely to be welcomed.
The media statement was headlined Bowel screening changes to save hundreds of lives.
This drew attention to Health Minister Simeon Brown’s announcement that the Government will progressively lower the age of eligibility for bowel cancer screening tests to align with Australia.
“Today, I am pleased to announce that we are taking the first step by lowering the age to 58, with redirected funding of $36 million over four years.
“This means free bowel screening will become available to all New Zealanders from the ages of 58 to 74,” Health Minister Simeon Brown says.
“Lowering the age of eligibility from 60 to 58 will see 122,000 Kiwis eligible for free tests in the first year and save hundreds of lives over the coming decades.”
The changes Brown announced are projected to prevent an additional 771 bowel cancers and an additional 566 bowel cancer deaths over the next 25 years.
Then came a critical bit of information:
“Advice from the Ministry of Health clearly states that lowering the age to 58 for all New Zealanders will save even more lives than the previous government’s approach to lower the age to 50 for Māori and Pacific Peoples only.
“Under our approach, we will be able to prevent 218 additional cancers and 176 additional deaths over 25 years in comparison to the settings proposed by the previous government.”
Those figures can’t be measures of guaranteed outcomes, surely.
Rather, they look like projections, indicative of what might happen, more or less, all going well.
A point of policy principle came into the picture too:
“This also aligns with the Government’s policy of ensuring that healthcare is delivered on the basis of need.”
And then Brown repeated what he had said earlier:
“The evidence is clear: by delivering this first step for all New Zealanders, more lives will be saved.
“The Government has also approved additional funding for targeted initiatives that aim to increase screening rates among population groups with low rates. Improving early detection of bowel cancers can be lifesaving, and this significant investment will be a game-changer for under-screened populations.”
The statistics which were included in Brown’s statement are grim:
“New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer globally. Every year, more than 3,300 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in New Zealand. Tragically, more than 1,200 Kiwis die from the disease.”
Brown did not mention Maori rates of bowel cancer. Nor did his media statement indicate where the money was coming from.
RNZ was among the media which hastened to report that the government had announced plans to lower the age for free bowel cancer screening for all New Zealanders by “redirecting” money previously set aside to lower the age for Māori and Pacific people.
RNZ highlighted these points:
“Today, I am pleased to announce that we are taking the first step by lowering the age to 58, with redirected funding of $36 million over four years.
“This means free bowel screening will become available to all New Zealanders from the ages of 58 to 74,” Health Minister Simeon Brown says.
“Lowering the age of eligibility from 60 to 58 will see 122,000 Kiwis eligible for free tests in the first year and save hundreds of lives over the coming decades.”
The changes Brown announced are projected to prevent an additional 771 bowel cancers and an additional 566 bowel cancer deaths over the next 25 years.
Then came a critical bit of information:
“Advice from the Ministry of Health clearly states that lowering the age to 58 for all New Zealanders will save even more lives than the previous government’s approach to lower the age to 50 for Māori and Pacific Peoples only.
“Under our approach, we will be able to prevent 218 additional cancers and 176 additional deaths over 25 years in comparison to the settings proposed by the previous government.”
Those figures can’t be measures of guaranteed outcomes, surely.
Rather, they look like projections, indicative of what might happen, more or less, all going well.
A point of policy principle came into the picture too:
“This also aligns with the Government’s policy of ensuring that healthcare is delivered on the basis of need.”
And then Brown repeated what he had said earlier:
“The evidence is clear: by delivering this first step for all New Zealanders, more lives will be saved.
“The Government has also approved additional funding for targeted initiatives that aim to increase screening rates among population groups with low rates. Improving early detection of bowel cancers can be lifesaving, and this significant investment will be a game-changer for under-screened populations.”
The statistics which were included in Brown’s statement are grim:
“New Zealand has one of the highest rates of bowel cancer globally. Every year, more than 3,300 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in New Zealand. Tragically, more than 1,200 Kiwis die from the disease.”
Brown did not mention Maori rates of bowel cancer. Nor did his media statement indicate where the money was coming from.
RNZ was among the media which hastened to report that the government had announced plans to lower the age for free bowel cancer screening for all New Zealanders by “redirecting” money previously set aside to lower the age for Māori and Pacific people.
RNZ highlighted these points:
- Free bowel cancer screening has been expanded from ages 60- 74 to 58-74
- The announcement repurposes funding set aside by the previous government to lower the eligibility age for Māori and Pacific Peoples from 60 to 50
- Every year, more than 3300 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer in New Zealand, and more than 1200 die from the disease
- Australia’s current age of eligibility for bowel cancer screening tests is 45
In this report, Brown was quoted as explaining that Māori and Pacific people already on the free screening programme who were aged between 50 and 60 would still be able to access the programme, but no new patients would be brought in.
Before long the media were reporting allegations of “institutional racism” as Maori health lobbyists and practitioners complained that the Government was ignoring statistics which show higher rates of bowel cancer in the Maori community.
Zoe Witika Hawke, CEO of E Tipu E Rea, urged the Health Minister to reconsider the decision, or find other ways to resource Māori to get screened earlier.
E Tipu E Rea understands and supports the need to care for everyone, she said, but it also questions the redirection of targeted funding for Māori and Pacific People.
“Targeted funding ensures our elders have access to early screening and keeps them in our lives for longer.”
Māori and Pasifika. Specialist GP Rawiri McKree Jansen baldly told RNZ:
“This government is deciding to save more pakeha lives.”
The Midday News presenter could not disguise her disapproval. She asked:
“To put it really bluntly, how many Māori and Pasifika might get bowel cancer and die or reach the stage where it can’t be treated before they even get to the age of 58 to have the screening?”
How many MIGHT get bowel cancer and die?
It seemed she was hoping for a big number.
McKree did not provide firm figures in response.
He said:
“In years to come we will be able to count that and give you actually firm numbers…”
But
“It’s going to be significant numbers and it’s going to happen year on year.”
He was not asked how many New Zealanders might not die because of the Government’s decision.
As this was being written, however, Simeon Brown was being closely questioned on Checkpoint about why the age of eligibility is not immediately being lowered for everybody to 50. Resources and budgets are among his explanations.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE. - where this article was sourced.
8 comments:
Time to reconsider the $48 million given to the haka festival
When it comes to university positons and scholarships and the like maori do not campaign for direction where it wil acheive the most ie high acheiver often non maori. RNZ has a list of pro maori campaigners to whom it regualrly resorts. Jansen is a regular for a sour medical response. In additon there is gossly disproportionate trace maori/ ultra pro maori presenters. If they have any list of non pro maori, it is an "avoid" register.
This decision is not racist, it treats all the same. The original Liebour policy to only have a lowered age range for Maori/Pacifica was by definition racist!
Anon@12.29 or the millions spent on te reo? As for racism, isn't that when some get stuff based on part of their ancestry that others don't? Either way, choices need to be made and Brown made the right one.
Given the reality that, genetically not one single authentic Māori is in existence today.
Are we to believe that anyone with the smallest amount of Maori DNA are rendered vulnerable to bowel cancer. I think not.
Just another, look at my victimhood status grift.
These elite, woke commentators have no shame.
Surely one life is as valuable as another.
Mudbayripper you've nailed it. If we are going to have racist 'Maori get special privileges' policies, we need to have a very clear test as to what is a Maori. Self-identifying with a smidgen shouldn't cut it? But better still, everyone should have equal opportunity and we do away with this nonsense, as Minister Brown just did.
Yes if faux Māori want special privileges, we need to quantify the numbers. This “feeling like a Māori” isn’t good enough. All we have done by continuing on with Treaty Settlements is create a victim mentality and giving license to anyone smart enough to see the dollar advantages by identifying as such.
As always the pro Maori agitators use percentages instead of actual numbers. It sounds better for them. The actual numbers of extra people being tested overall with the age drop from 60 to 58, far exceeds the number of Maori being tested from 50 to 60. That's as it should be
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