Instead of apologising for his comments on One News on Saturday calling the Cancer Society “off the planet” Andrew Little has doubled down in a tweet exchange on Sunday and again name called the Cancer Society, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“The Cancer Society is a beloved and trusted charity who do so much for people with cancer and their family and whanau. New Zealanders simply will not stand for Andrew Little’s attacks on the organisation.

“Minister Little has made a habit of attacking organisations and people who critique him or his ideas. The Mental Health Foundation and nurses have been on the receiving end of Minister Little’s temper too.

“The issue is simple, cancer kills more people than anything else and cancer diagnosis and treatment needs to be a target like the targets National introduced in Government.

“Instead, Labour has recently announced 12 priorities for the health system and none measure cancer diagnosis and treatment times. They have made it explicitly clear that cancer is not a health priority.

“New Zealanders are saying Labour’s new health indicators look like measures and if that is the case, then if it looks like a horse and smells like horse – it probably is a horse and a hopeless one at that.

“Jacinda Ardern needs to have her Health Minister apologise to the Cancer Society and either she or he needs to explain why cancer diagnosis and treatment are not in the top 12 health priorities for the Labour Government.

“New Zealanders care about cancer and want the Government to be accountable for cancer targets. Getting through the 30,000 people on waiting lists for more than four months would be a good starting point.”