TVNZ leaves out Labour link in cancer policy critique
August 24, 2026
Summarised by Centrist
TVNZ’s coverage of ACT’s $2 billion cancer centre plan featured a critic of the policy without telling viewers he is married to Labour MP Rachel Brooking.
ACT is campaigning on creating a National Cancer Centre with campuses in Auckland and Christchurch, bringing treatment, research, clinical trials and advanced technology together in what candidate Paul Henry has called a “Starship for Cancer”.
ACT estimates about $2 billion in capital investment would be needed. Its proposal envisages a mix of public-private financing, charitable donations, existing Crown health investment and private capital, with Health New Zealand becoming a major purchaser of services from the centres.
University of Otago professor of cancer medicine Chris Jackson has strongly criticised the plan’s reliance on philanthropy.
“The idea of getting that amount of money from philanthropy year, on year, on year, is just magical thinking,” Jackson said, arguing that running cancer services would require hundreds of millions of dollars in continuing expenditure.
He also questioned whether concentrating cancer services in Auckland and Christchurch would help patients elsewhere.
“This proposal is going to do nothing to help the person with bowel cancer in Invercargill, with breast cancer in Timaru, or prostate cancer in Gisborne,” he said.
Jackson is an experienced cancer specialist and former medical director of the Cancer Society. He is also Brooking’s husband.
Labour’s own biography for the Dunedin MP states: “I am married to cancer specialist and campaigner Prof Chris Jackson.”
ACT MP Nicole McKee criticised TVNZ for not mentioning that connection when Jackson appeared in its coverage opposing the policy.
“Viewers weren’t told about that rather significant connection,” McKee said.
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