Bowel cancer screening age lowered to 56 years old in Budget 2026
Thursday, 28 May 2026
The bowel cancer screening age will be lowered from 58 to 56 years old in September.
Another 200,000 will become eligible for the screening over two years.
The change, costing $45m, is the latest step towards matching Australia's screening age of 45 years old.
The bowel cancer screening age will be lowered to 56 years old, Government says, allowing tens of thousands more people to get checked.
The screening age will change from 58 to 56 years old in September, Health Minister Simeon Brown said on Thursday.
The rollout is expected to take two years. By September 2028, another 200,000 New Zealanders will have become eligible for screening.
It was estimated that over the next 25 years, the expansion of the scheme would prevent 638 bowel cancers and save 522 lives.
'Earlier diagnosis means faster treatment, better outcomes and ultimately more lives saved,' Brown said.
Lowering the age would cost an additional $45 million over four years, made up of $33m for programme delivery and $12.5m to increase colonoscopy capacity. That funding was allocated in Budget 2026.
The bowel cancer screening age was lowered to 58 years old in September and the national rollout is nearly complete.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has committed to aligning New Zealand's screening age with Australia, which was 50 years old at the time and 45 for some people. He made the commitment when put on the spot by a bowel cancer patient in an election debate in 2023.
Brown today reaffirmed the goal of matching Australia while cautioning that the Government needed to gradually build capacity to avoid swamping the health system.
'That's why we are taking a phased approach - expanding access step-by-step while building the workforce and infrastructure needed to support the programme safely and sustainably.'
Labour leader Chris Hipkins - who also said he would match Australia’s screening age in 2023 - said Luxon’s failure to reach that milestone this term was a “huge broken promise”.
“The Australians have been lowering the screening age since we made that commitment. They’ve barely touched the sides of doing that.”
Asked about this, Luxon said Hipkins did nothing on bowel screening when Labour was in Government.
He said the Government had to make sure it had the resources to lower the age further and it was “on a pathway” to align with Australia.
In all, the funding would pay for 800,000 additional screening kits, more doctors and medical staff, equipment, and 6200 more colonoscopies for those who require follow-up care after screening.
Patients of any age can also request a screening test as part of the FIT for Symptomatic initiative. It is designed to manage demand for colonoscopies by helping clinicians assess a patient's risk and prioritise urgent cases.
This initiative is expected to be fully implemented across the country by September. Brown said it would help reduce unnecessary colonoscopies and free up specialist capacity - allowing the bowel cancer screening programme to expand.
When the Coalition Government came to power, the bowel screening age was 60 years old and 50 years for Maori and Pasifika in some regions.
After a review, the Government decided to lift the age for Maori and Pacific patients to the same as other patients, saying healthcare should be allocated according to need not race.
Clinicians have long argued for a lower age for Maori and Pacific because they were typically diagnosed at a younger age, but the Government argued that this was because these ethnicities had younger populations, rather than increased risk.
Bower cancer is one of the biggest killers in New Zealand, and studies show it is increasingly being diagnosed at a younger age.