Health Minister Andrew Little says Tuesday's report from the Cancer Control Agency is a good starting point.
The Cancer Society says it is time to fund the battle against the disease properly, believing New Zealand has fallen well behind other first-world nations in its approach.
Society chief medical officer Chris Jackson was unsurprised by the findings of a report from the Cancer Control Agency, which found Maori are more than twice as likely to die of cancer than other New Zealanders.
He says government funding of primary care, treatment and screening programmes has been allowed to drift over the last 15 years.
Little agreed the funding has been allowed to drift, but said the whole health sector needed funding generally, and he can't say what specifically will happen in different areas.
Health Minister Andrew Little speaks to Susie Ferguson.
