Act Party candidate Paul Henry says New Zealand should have a cancer hospital as good as the facilities in other major cities. Photo / Mike Scott

Act is promising to build a world-class cancer centre with campuses in Auckland and Christchurch worth $2 billion, fulfilling an impromptu policy idea from candidate Paul Henry.

Described by Act as the “Starship for cancer”, the policy partly relies on wealthy donors seeking “their name on the hospital” tohelp fund the centre, which the party wants to have built by 2035.

Speaking at the party’s South Island launch event in Christchurch, Henry announced Act would back an idea he admitted he made “on the fly” in July during his first stand-up as a candidate.

“A concerned David Seymour looked on. I watched him out the corner of my eye, panic on his face,” he said.

“I now understand that announcing policies on the fly is probably discouraged among candidates. But honestly, what did they think they were getting with me?”

Henry said he expected Seymour to tell him to never mention the hospital again.

“Instead, I was told, we think you might be on to something.”

The policy does not commit the Government to a specific capital spend but pledges to launch an independent philanthropic foundation that would funnel donations from wealthy donors. Existing and planned health infrastructure funding would also be repurposed for the project. The funding model would combine that Crown investment with public-private partnership financing, philanthropy and other private capital.

Act has also promised to remove the $33,000 cap on the annual tax credits donors can claim to reduce their tax owing. The cap was announced in Budget 2026 and Act said it was an “arbitrary” move that discouraged generosity.

“To the wealthy Green Party supporters who keep publicly announcing how desperately keen they are to pay more tax – this is fantastic news. They can give voluntarily. In fact, why not shut the Green Party down and just give your money to this project.

“And if somebody makes a truly transformational contribution and wants their name on the hospital, put their name on the hospital. Make the letters enormous.”

The policy document does not specify which initiatives the cancer centre would replace but Henry said instead of “patching together a dispersed system” that needed upgrades “piece by piece”, some of that funding could be used to “create something genuinely world-class that will save more lives”.

“My friend John Key has said one of his great political regrets was being talked out of building what he called at the time ‘the equivalent of Starship for cancer’,” he said.

“If he had his time again, he has said he would do it because generations of New Zealanders would look back and say it was a good use of taxpayer money.”

The centre, which Henry said would be “much bigger” than Starship, would have hubs in Christchurch and Auckland. Henry said New Zealand should have a cancer hospital as good as the facilities in other major cities, such as the MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne where his daughter works “because she can save more lives there than she can here”.

“Over 1000 more New Zealanders die from cancer every year than would if our cancer mortality just matched Australia’s,” he said.

“Cancer touches almost every family in this country. Cancer has touched everyone in this room. We should not simply shrug our shoulders and accept that New Zealanders are more likely to die from it because they happen to live on this side of the Tasman.”

New Zealand had “brilliant clinicians, researchers, universities, charities and private providers doing extraordinary work” but they were scattered around the country.

“A comprehensive cancer centre puts the researcher and teacher next to the clinician, the surgeon next to the diagnostic team, the oncologist next to the genomics specialist, and all of them next to the patients, with major clinical trials and new therapies happening around them.

“Politicians love buildings because you can put on a hard hat, a high-vis, and point at some concrete looking as though you personally constructed it.”

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.