u/Moonfrog

The ACT Party wants to build New Zealand's first dedicated national cancer centre, turning a musing from new candidate Paul Henry into a campaign promise.

ACT would establish a philanthropic foundation to attract some of the funding, and get rid of a cap on donation tax credits - the same cap that put one National MP at odds with his party.

When he announced his candidacy in July, Henry said he wanted a world-class cancer hospital in New Zealand, but admitted it would cost "multiple billions" of dollars.

"I think you could easily get a group of wealthy New Zealanders to stump up with about 10 billion, easily. The rest of it we would borrow, but that would be an investment in New Zealand's future," he said at the time.

Now, the party has confirmed it is pressing ahead with the idea, unveiling a plan to build a "Starship for Cancer" with campuses in Auckland and Christchurch.

"Starship showed what New Zealand can achieve when we concentrate talent, technology, generosity and national ambition around a single mission. ACT wants to do the same for cancer," Henry said.

The Green Party wants to bring back the school lunch programme to what it was, and then expand it to more schools.

The party says if it is part of the next government, it will also permanently fund the Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme (which was renamed Healthy School Lunches in October).

The current government made changes to the model, in order to cut down on costs.

The programme had some early teething issues, including poor meal quality and a provider going into liquidation.

But Associate Education Minister David Seymour said in May that on-time delivery has been at almost 100 percent every day, and complaints had fallen by more than 92 percent.

The average cost per meal has now dropped to $3.58 across all suppliers, but the Greens want to restore the funding to $6.50 per lunch.

The Prime Minister has called for an "urgent-in person" caucus meeting in Wellington on Wednesday morning.

It comes amid renewed pressure on Christopher Luxon's leadership.

Luxon wrote on social media on Tuesday, after postponing various prior arrangements, that it was "clear from various media reports and conversations there is increased speculation about my leadership".

"It is my firm belief that division and disunity are a major distraction only 90 days out from the election.

"I also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters and volunteers, when there is so much at stake."

For those reasons, he wrote, the issue "needs to be resolved quickly".

"I am calling an urgent in-person Caucus meeting tomorrow at 9:30am in Wellington to resolve the issue."

The Māori Electoral Option closes at 11.59pm on Thursday, August 6.

The Electoral Commission says applications submitted online, by email or uploaded through its website must be received by midnight to be accepted.

Paper enrolment forms returned by post can still be accepted if they are postmarked or date-stamped before midnight on August 6, provided they are received by the Commission no later than noon on Tuesday, August 11.

A timely reminder for everyone that the question time with Dr Gary Payinda is tomorrow - July 30th.

Please make sure to submit your questions ahead of time as in right now as the cut off is today - July 29th.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appeared to rule out working with Opportunity, and said National didn't want to "do business" with anyone seeking to impose new taxes.

Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong responded to Luxon’s comments and said the party remained “willing to work with parties across the political spectrum”.

Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Hipkins said he “wasn’t sure” Luxon intended to rule out working with Opportunity yesterday.

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When asked if Hipkins would support Opportunity’s policy on universal basic income Hipkins said: “The two things are linked and we clearly don’t support that.”

Opportunity's tax policy includes a universal basic income of up to $370 per week, a land value tax of 1.75% on urban land and 0.5% on rural land, and compulsory KiwiSaver which would gradually rise to 6% both for employers and employees.

Hipkins was then asked if Luxon was correct in suggesting Opportunity was more aligned with left leaning political parties rather than working with those on the right.

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“We won’t support the tax policy put forward by Opportunity, we also won’t support the wealth taxes, land taxes and other things put forward by the Greens either. We’ve got one simple tax policy which is a simple targeted capital gains tax, that’s as far as we’re going to go.”