A new Government commitment to fighting bowel cancer is being met with tempered delight.

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Health minister Jonathan Coleman reports the health sector will be consulted about the potential for a nationwide screening programme, but if approved, the staged roll-out wouldn't begin until at least 2017.

Bowel Cancer New Zealand executive director Fiona Colbert hoped it would be rolled out earlier than that.

"We're still losing 12,00 New Zealanders a year to this condition - as many as breast and prostate cancers combined."

Ms Colbert said a screening programme could reduce that fatality number dramatically.

"New Zealand women have the highest death rate in the world from this cancer, and New Zealand men have the third highest."

The Government's announcement follows a similar roll-out currently underway in Australia.

Bowel cancer screening has also been trialled at Auckland's Waitemata DHB for the last four years.