'He doesn't speak for me': Cancer patients hit back at Shane Jones

Mother of five and cancer patient Claudine Johnstone says she's delighted her story was voiced in Parliament. Photo / Supplied

A woman battling cancer who left the country for treatment has been left less-than-impressed by Government minister Shane Jones' complaints about how her story should be used in Parliament.

While politicians debated her case in the House on Thursday, Claudine Johnstone was in Australia getting a second round of treatment she wouldn't be able to afford in New Zealand.

The Kiwi mother of five and former Dunedin resident has terminal breast cancer. This year she moved to the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, where her husband's family live, to gain access to a drug to give her more time with her children - and which is publicly funded across the ditch but not at home.

"I shouldn't have had to uproot my whole family and move them to Australia, but I'm lucky I can," she told the Herald.

Among a series of other comments from patients, National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse in the House this week read out a letter from Johnstone's 8-year-old daughter, Lucy.

It read: "My dad talked to a man called David Clark. He promised that if he was in Government, he would make cancer care in Aotearoa better, but he lied".

NZ First MP Jones then sparked an at-times personal debate, accusing Woodhouse of using suffering to score points against the Health Minister.

"He made a statement which imputed that the Minister of Health was deriving better livelihood by not attending to the cases pertaining to those names of God-fearing New Zealanders who find themselves in these awful circumstances," Jones said.

"Not only does that lower the tone of the House but I think it is very unfair on those New Zealand families that they should be used in such a grubby, political manner."

But Johnstone says she was thrilled to have her story brought up.

Claudine Johnstone and her family.

"I was very unimpressed that Shane Jones thought he could be speak for me and say that it wasn't appropriate to share my story," she said.

"To me this isn't about politics, this is about people's lives."

Johnstone said she had campaigned for Labour in the 2017 election as a staunch supporter, and even shaved her hair off while wearing a 'Let's Do This" shirt after her first round of chemo.

The family campaigned for Clark in 2011 and had known the minister since the closure of Dunedin's Hillside Workshop the following year, husband Stuart Johnstone said.

Having her story brought up in Parliament was part of holding to account a minister and Government she felt hadn't lived up to its promises in Opposition, she said.

"Stuart spoke to Clark on several occasions and they really pushed that they were going to improve cancer care ... He said don't go to Australia, " Claudine said.

"I believe they've completely failed."

Government minister Shane Jones says the Opposition used suffering for "grubby" political attacks. Photo / Mark Mitchell

She's not alone in her criticism of Jones.

"I felt quite frustrated and mad," mother-of-three Wiki Mulholland said, adding Woodhouse and had given time to her and other patients over the past year.

She has been lobbying the Government and agency drug-buying agency Pharmac to fund an expensive drug since her diagnosis last year.

"I've never seen Shane Jones at anything. Who are you to accuse somebody of grandstanding or using us as a political football?"

But Jones says his objection has been misinterpreted and was just about Woodhouse alleging the Minister had intentionally ignored the cases to for his own benefit.

"I don't want to inhibit any New Zealander with either a medical, a political or an economic problem from coming to get politicians to bat for them. That's how democracy works," he said.

"My remarks are about the conduct of a fellow parliamentarian, not about the rights of individual families to approach any parliamentarian."

National MP Michael Woodhouse during Question Time in Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

But Opposition MPs saw it differently on the night.

"Shane Jones has said he's a cancer survivor, but so am I," MP Nikki Kaye said.

"And what I know is that there are a huge number of New Zealanders for which they lobby Members of Parliament so their cases are raised in this House. That is their right as democratic citizens."

Woodhouse also stood by his questions.

"These patients have an expectation that the Opposition will compare the description of wellbeing that has been articulated by the Government with their lived experience," he said.

Clark said he had deep empathy for the families and pointed to an additional $2.8 billion of funding for District Health Boards.

In a statement later, he said he had instructed the Ministry of Health to prioritise work on cancer and an interim plan was due in coming weeks.

"It has been clear for many years that we can and must do better for cancer sufferers," he said.

But he said the Government would not be interfering in the way Pharmac made its decision and that it was not for politicians to second-guess experts.