Doorstop interview with Minister Butler, Parliament House – 12 May 2026

MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Alright, thanks for coming out this morning. I just want to provide an update on the hantavirus cases that are impacting 5 Australians, 4 citizens, 1 permanent resident and also a New Zealand national who will be covered by the Australia repatriation arrangements. Overnight, additional cases have come to light, including a French national who is in hospital in France in a critical condition, showing again that this is, albeit a relatively low risk, still a risk of transmission among passengers of this cruise ship. The Australian nationals and the New Zealander have arrived in the last few hours to the Netherlands. I thank the Netherlands Government for facilitating their repatriation from Tenerife to the Netherlands, pending the finalisation of flight arrangements for them to return to Australia. They are in good health. They have been kept informed, including through a town hall meeting last night, about the arrangements that the Australian Government is currently putting in place. And they are now in hotel quarantine, hopefully asleep as it's overnight in the Netherlands right now.
 
The Department of Foreign Affairs is still in the process of finalising flight arrangements. These are complex arrangements, given the distance between the Netherlands and Australia, and also the requirement to find a company willing to charter a flight that would be subject to obviously quite strict hygiene requirements at the end of the flight, and for it to be crewed by a crew who will be willing to undertake isolation, either here in Australia or if they return immediately to their home base in that plane’s country. Those arrangements are still being finalised. We're confident they'll be finalised within the 48-hour timeframe that the Netherlands Government has given. We're 3 hours into that 48 hours. Those arrangements will be the subject of further information when they come to light.
 
The hantavirus has now been listed under the Biosecurity Act as a listed human disease that is able to be the subject of biosecurity orders, orders that I indicated would be made yesterday. And those orders will be that the 5 Australians, 4 citizens and 1 permanent resident, and the New Zealand national, once they arrive back in Australia, will be subject to quarantine arrangements that I outlined yesterday. In particular, they will land at the RAAF Base Pearce, north-east of Perth. They will be transported immediately to the quarantine facility at Bullsbrook, which is effectively next door to the Air Force Base, and they will be subject to 3 weeks of quarantine at that facility. That facility is purpose-built exactly for this sort of a case.
 
Bullsbrook will be staffed in medical terms by staff from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre. This is a federal centre that is housed in Darwin. It was set up in 2002 in response to the Bali bombing tragedy. It has very high experience in dealing with infectious disease emergencies and a range of other medical emergencies, both here in Australia and across the region. And staff are in the process of being deployed from Darwin to look after the 5 Australians and the single New Zealander who will be at Bullsbrook over the course of this 3 weeks. As I said, as we move through that 3-week period, we will take advice from chief health officers about what arrangements should be in place for the remainder of the 42 days that have been advised by the World Health Organization as the incubation period for this condition.
 
I just want to reiterate again, is probably the strongest quarantine arrangement anywhere in the world, of the 23 or so countries who are taking passengers back from this cruise ship you will find because our government takes our responsibility to keep the community safe and healthy very, very seriously. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, how many crew do you think will have to assist these people coming back? And also, what will their quarantine arrangements be? Will they have to also be in that Bullsbrook facility for 3 weeks? And those ones on the ground who are helping in Bullsbrook, will they have to stay back for that incubation period as well, and quarantine themselves?
 
BUTLER: That really depends on the nature of the flight and any contact between crew and the 6 returning repatriated cruise ship passengers. That would be obviously the subject of advice from our public health officials. It will also, in terms of the crew, depend on whether the crew will effectively turn around and return immediately to their home base. In which case, they'll be subject to the quarantine arrangements that are in place in that country. But if they stay in Australia, then they’ll obviously be subject to quarantine arrangements developed by the Australian Government.
 
JOURNALIST: Has that been one of the difficulties of the delay about finding a crew that will isolate or quarantine for that period?
 
BUTLER: As I have said, there are essentially 2 difficulties. One is finding a plane to travel this long distance that was subject to those hygiene arrangements, but also a crew willing to isolate whether it's here in Australia or back at their home base. But I'm very confident we'll have those flight arrangements in place within the 48-hour timeframe the Netherlands Government has given us.
 
JOURNALIST: Has anyone considered a military flight?
 
BUTLER: We're looking at a whole range of different arrangements. They've been coordinated by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
 
JOURNALIST: Could that be a backup if you can’t get an alternative?
 
BUTLER: We're looking at all the possible arrangements to get the Australians and that New Zealander to Australia within the timeframe we've been given.
 
JOURNALIST: Is the Commonwealth helping with those costs in the Netherlands for the hotel or any other quarantine arrangements?
 
BUTLER: We're very thankful to the Netherlands Government for accommodating this. They've obviously given us a limited timeframe, but they've been very generous in allowing the Australians and the New Zealander to effectively remain in place there for 48-hours while we secure those flight arrangements, and obviously we'll have some discussions with the Netherlands Government about those things.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you have any idea of the cost of this, of bringing them home?
 
BUTLER: That will be clear in due course once those arrangements are finalised.
 
JOURNALIST: And an update on their condition overnight, are they still asymptomatic?
 
BUTLER: Yeah, my advice is they're all in good health. They're monitored for any symptoms, but they're all in good health and relatively good spirits. They've obviously been subject to a pretty difficult period on that cruise ship, as all the passengers have been, but they've been kept informed by the government about the arrangements we're putting in place.
 
JOURNALIST: The French national that is in hospital in critical condition, when did they first start showing symptoms?
 
BUTLER: I can't give you any detail about that. We're going off reports as well coming from the French media about that. I know the French Health Minister has provided some statements about that patient. We wish her all the best in this.
 
JOURNALIST: An army officer died last night in a parachuting incident. What does the federal government know about it?
 
BUTLER: Look, this is obviously a very, very deep tragedy. I don't want to say anything about it. I'm sure the Army and the Defence Minister will be addressing this very shortly.
 
JOURNALIST: How concerned should the Australian public be of the people being exposed to the virus returning to Australia?
 
BUTLER: We have put in place the strongest quarantine arrangements I can find anywhere in the world of the 2 dozen countries that are having passengers repatriated from this cruise ship, because we take our responsibility to keep our communities safe and healthy very, very seriously indeed. Those quarantine arrangements I am very confident will ensure that Australians can all have confidence that there is no risk to the broader Australian community from this tragedy that's happened on a cruise ship over the other side of the world. These are very, very strong quarantine arrangements put in place in the facility built for this purpose and will be staffed by expert staff from the Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre who have vast experience in dealing with infectious disease emergencies.
 
JOURNALIST: What's the plan if you don't get them out after 48 hours?
 
BUTLER: We're very confident we'll get them out within the timeframe the Netherlands has set.
 
JOURNALIST: Will this situation where the quarantine is based in Perth, when there are scenarios overseas, will that be the government's textbook going forward when there are viruses internationally that we need to bring home?
 
BUTLER: There are facilities in different parts of the country as well. Perth was always going to be the first port of call for the returning flight. I thank the WA Government for their cooperation in this. We've had good consultation with them about using what is a Commonwealth facility and obviously a Commonwealth air force base, but in the state of Western Australia. Western Australia or WA Health staff will not be involved in the care and support of these passengers while they are at Bullsbrook. That will be done by staff, as I said, from the Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre from Darwin, which is a Commonwealth operation and a Commonwealth facility. Obviously, if a passenger becomes very, very unwell, they maybe have to be transported to a Perth hospital. But at the moment, all things being well, they will not have to be cared for by WA Health staff.
 
There are facilities in Brisbane, there's a facility in Melbourne. Really, it would depend in the future if something like this happens on what was the most convenient place for people to enter Australia again, depending on where they were coming from. But Perth was always going to be the first port of call, which is why as the national government rather than having different arrangements in Queensland or New South Wales, which is where these passengers are all resident, we took the view that it was a national responsibility to find a national solution to this challenge.
 
JOURNALIST: And how many staff are coming from Darwin to assist?
 
BUTLER: Enough to deal with 24/7 support over a 3-week period. We’ll make sure this is adequately staffed.