Minister for Health and Aged Care, press conference - 18 September 2024

MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: It's terrific to be here with state ministers Picton and Michaels to give an update on our joint efforts to stamp out vaping, which is one of the most significant health menaces for young Australians that we have right now. Vaping was presented to our community, and to communities right around the world, as a therapeutic good several years ago. It was presented as another tool in a toolbox to help hardened smokers finally kick the habit - usually people have been smoking for decades and then tried a whole range of nicotine or smoking cessation therapies without success. But what we've learned, several years on, is that that was all a lie. It was all a ruse from Big Tobacco. Really what vaping is about is: recruiting a new generation to nicotine addiction. You just have to look at the products that have been sold, not just here in Australia, but around the world. They're generally covered in cartoon characters, they're bubblegum flavoured, very deliberately and obviously targeted at attracting young kids and teenagers. You also just have to look at where they have been sold. We know that nine out of 10 vape stores in Australia were set up within walking distance of schools, and that was deliberately so, not just a coincidence, but deliberately so because schools, after all, were the target market. We are determined as a group of governments, to stamp out this public health menace. Because we know it is doing such harm.
 
Tragically, the strategy of Big Tobacco has been working: as many as one in six high school students are vaping and one in four young adults as well. And we learned last week that the Big Tobacco strategy to make this a gateway to smoking cigarettes, tragically, is working as well. Research from the University of Sydney and Cancer Council released over the last several days shows that a high school student who vapes is five times more likely to take up cigarettes than another high school student. Outrageously, a 12-year-old who vapes is 29 times more likely to try cigarettes as a 12-year-old who does not vape. We also know this has been the number one behavioural issue now for several years in schools, mainly high schools, but increasingly primary schools as well. We've all heard stories of teachers having to take time out of their teaching duties to start policing the vaping that is happening in their schoolyards. I've heard of teachers who are not just rostered to stand outside of school toilets during lunch time and recess but are actually having to be rostered to stand inside school toilets, such is the scale of the vaping challenge that school communities are dealing with right now.
 
State governments, territory governments and the Commonwealth have been determined for 12 to 18 months now to find a comprehensive strategy to stamp this out. The first step has been to shut down the flood of vapes coming into this country at the border. I'm delighted to report that since the 1st of January, when I introduced an import ban on disposable vapes, the Australian Border Force and the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the two federal agencies that have been resourced to police this import ban, have seized more than 5.2 million vapes in just about eight months. Those are 5 million vapes taken out of the hands of our young children, stopping them have this gateway presented to them, to start to take up cigarette smoking. The second phase of our ban, though, has to be to stamp down and shut down the retail sale of vapes through vape stores, through tobacconists and convenience stores. That has required the close cooperation, obviously, of state governments, who largely have responsibility for policing retail arrangements like that. I'm really delighted, particularly as a South Australian, at the degree to which the South Australian Government has really leaned into this, providing additional resources and, as soon as the ban took effect on the 1st of July through federal laws, has started to get out there and make sure that that ban becomes a reality, and even fewer vapes are being allowed into the hands of young South Australians. I'm really pleased to hand over now to the South Australian ministers to add to my remarks.
 
 
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING, CHRIS PICTON: Thank you very much, Mark. As Mark has said, we are seeing vaping as an emerging public health emergency across the country. Young people are taking up vaping at an alarming level. Here in South Australia, our latest statistics show that in the space of one year, the number of young people vaping in South Australia doubled. That's just in one year. That's a really worrying trend, and that's why this dramatic action needs to be put in place. We give full credit to Mark for leading the charge around this across the country. This is world leading work that is happening here in Australia, and it's a cooperation between Mark and the federal government, and all the states and territory health ministers and governments who are working together to take on this public health menace before this gets completely out of hand. We've seen now through those federal laws that have been passed and additional enforcement going in at the Border Force, but also through states and territories, that we are starting to have an impact. You can see across our community, a lot less vape stores around the place, and anecdotally, we are hearing from high school kids it is starting to have an impact in terms of the availability of vapes for those teenagers across the community. But there's still a lot more to do. Border Force is still doing more raids. Consumer and Business Services are still doing more raids to make sure that we can cut this off at the pass. These products, even if they have marketed as not containing nicotine, the vast majority of them contain a huge amount of nicotine, much more nicotine than you would get from a cigarette. This is hooking young people, making them highly addicted to these products, causing all sorts of issues behaviourally at home, but also at schools across the country. As well as that, they contain a cocktail of nasty chemicals, the sort of thing that you might find in cleaning products or nail polish remover are in these products. Young people are putting them into their lungs, and all the emerging evidence is that this could potentially have very lifelong health impacts for young people, from these chemicals going into their body. The only thing that people should be putting in their body, in their lungs, is air, not all of this cocktail of chemicals that are included in these vapes. This highlights why we need to take action, and we're going to continue to do so. We also have a Bill in our Parliament now, which we're expecting to be debated in the House of Assembly next week, which will seek to put in place the toughest state regime or penalties that we see anywhere in the country. And that's important as well, to have not only those federal strong laws, but also state strong laws that can be used to wipe out these things. I’ll pass over to Minister Michaels.
 
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR CONSUMER AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS, ANDREA MICHAELS: Some really good work has been done with my agency, Consumer Business Services, federal agencies, including Border Force and other state and federal agencies since, particularly since 1st of July. Consumer Business Services has been involved in compliance and enforcement, taking it on from the 1st of July. An additional $16 million was invested through the state Budget to allow them to do that. We've seen the results: so we've seen the Consumer and Business Services Flying Squad take off nearly $700,000 worth of product off our streets since that 1st of July date. As Minister Picton said, we're seeing that being reported through schools and teenagers about, anecdotally, less product being available, which is a very good thing. Not only have we got the health risk, but we also know that serious organised crime is involved in this, and that is why we putting a sustained effort and collaborating with state and federal colleagues to make sure this illegal trade is killed off. We need to see that happen for the health of our kids, and lots of progress is being made. We have had a recent joint raid with CBS and Border Force, which took up $160,000 worth of product off our street. CBS will continue its raids this week and next week, and we are looking forward to see those results come through, and we are very much looking forward to stamping this out across our state and around our country.
 
JOURNALIST: What can you tell us about the raids, particularly in South Australia?
 
AUSTRALIAN BORDER FORCE, SUPERINTENDENT ROBERT GUNN: At this stage, I can't talk about any of the raids. Those investigations are ongoing. It's inappropriate for me to comment at this stage.
 
JOURNALIST: How does it work in terms of raids? Are you guys getting tip offs, is it intelligence?
 
GUNN: Once again, those are ongoing investigations. I'm not at liberty to disclose our investigative techniques.
 
JOURNALIST: 160,000 – the figure that the Minister mentioned, when were those raids and seizures carried out?
 
GUNN: I don't have that information.
 
JOURNALIST: How many officers do you have in your team conducting those raids?
 
GUNN: I'm not in charge of the investigation side of things. I'd be happy to pass on that information or provide context of the investigation, but I'm here to talk more about the Border Protection, the seizing at border, rather than the investigation work.
 
JOURNALIST: What can you tell us about that?
 
GUNN: ABF conducts seizure activity around the border. ABF has seized over 4.2 million devices coming into Australia since the ban went in place in the 1st of January, and that includes fake devices, accessories and substances.
 
JOURNALIST: And what’s the origin of those 4.2 million devices?
 
GUNN: Those have come from places all around the world. We work with our overseas partners, as well as the state and federal departments, in order to disrupt the flow of these devices into the country.
 
JOURNALIST: The Minister mentioned organised crime is a big problem in terms of these vapes. How much of the problem is organised crime?
 
GUNN: Organised crime will always take every opportunity to maximize their profit and do so without thought to the impact of our community. Border Force will continue to remain vigilant to treating the threat that organised crime poses, including in addressing vapes being imported into the country.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you able to outline how these vapes are entering the country?
 
GUNN: Over 92 million consignments of air and sea cargo come into the country every single year, as well as 17 million passengers. We see vapes being imported into Australia through all of those streams. ABF officers are vigilant and work with our targeting colleagues to identify those consignments of greatest threat and to interdict them at that stage.
 
JOURNALIST: Has there been any indication on particular channels which are coming through, rather than the bigger ports of Melbourne and Sydney for example, are they trying to get in through all the major capital cities?
 
GUNN: We are seeing vape seizures all around the country and across all streams.
 
JOURNALIST: How does Adelaide look?
 
GUNN: Adelaide we see predominantly in air cargo, more so than sea cargo. But the threat is common to all ports around Australia.
 
JOURNALIST: How much does the ABF believe they're missing in terms of seizing these vapes?
 
GUNN: The challenge is one of volume. As I mentioned, we have over 92 million air and sea consignments coming into Australia every year, and ABF has 6,000 officers around the country. So it just shows and highlights the need to collaborate with our state and territory counterparts, as well as the importance of educating in our community to try and disrupt the flow and disrupt the demand for vapes in our communities.
 
JOURNALIST: But in terms of the ratio, do you have a percentage or like, is it one in five vapes that you're intercepting at the border? Or do you have an idea about that?
 
GUNN: No, I don't have that level of granularity.
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of the way which vapes are coming to Australia. Is it often that they’re intercepted along with other drugs, for example? Or is the vape trade kind of on its own?
 
GUNN: Without going into specific details, we are seeing large consignments of vapes, predominantly by themselves, and they're often misdescribed or concealed within other products.
 
JOURNALIST: And is the black market still very much across Australia?
 
GUNN: Absolutely. We are seeing increased detections around Australia month on month and that shows that the demand is still strong within our communities, but also that the serious organised crime entities behind these importations will often stop at nothing in an attempt to infiltrate our communities.
 
JOURNALIST: So those increased detections have been as a result of the 1st of January, or has there been a drop?
 
GUNN: We're seeing steady increases in our detections at the border around the country since the import ban came in place.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you have a message to the people that want to import vapes?
 
GUNN: Vapes are prohibited imports and the penalties for importing prohibited imports into this country are quite strict. People found guilty of importing vapes into the country could face penalties of up to seven years in jail and fines of over $1.5 to $2 million.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister Michaels, can we ask: on the 5th of September, I think the valuation of seized materials was around about $360,000 and it is now about $600,000 odd, but the number of raids is consistent at over 200. Are you able to explain the discrepancy in the numbers or where the extra seizure valuation has come from, if there haven't been extra inspections.
 
MICHAELS: There have been extra inspections. Those inspections are happening on a weekly basis. What we have seen is some significant seizures from particular raids, and that's bumped the numbers up of what's coming off the streets, up to $700,000.
 
JOURNALIST: Does that suggest that somewhere in the past two weeks there's been a fairly significant seizure, or seizures, is that correct? And can you explain some more?
 
MICHAELS: I'm not able to provide details of that, but yes, there has been significant raids in the last weeks.
 
JOURNALIST: There was a recent raid, $160,000 worth, what can you tell us about that?
 
MICHAELS: Again, that's under investigation at the moment for prosecution, so I'm not able to share details.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you still finding that a lot of the trade is through convenience stores?
 
MICHAELS: There are a number of stores where they're either licensed and selling illegal vapes and tobacco, or they're unlicensed and posing as gift shops or other stores around schools, as we've heard. So they're the ones that we're targeting.
 
JOURNALIST: Have you noticed any change in operations to try to shift to escape the laws and the tightening? Is it changing the way that they're sold?
 
MICHAELS: I'm not aware of that. Inevitably, some of these organised crime gangs will find novel ways to continue their trade, and we are looking at all those options and hoping people report that through to Consumer and Business Services, which they can do anonymously on the CBS website,
 
JOURNALIST: And you've referenced raids still to come or inspections, at least, still to come this week and next week. Does that imply that there's a blitz on which ends in two weeks? Is that the case?
 
MICHAELS: No, there'll be ongoing compliance in this space. CBS has been funded an extra $16 million, we've had over 20 new staff at CBS since the 1st of July to tackle this illegal trade in vapes and tobacco.
 
JOURNALIST: In terms of tip offs, you mentioned last time, the tip offs to CBS still tend to come in fairly hot. Is that the case?
 
MICHAELS: We are still seeing a significant amount of public intelligence coming through CBS, and it is very useful for our inspectors and our compliance staff. So please keep reporting through to CBS. That intelligence is shared not only with our staff, but also with state and federal and other agencies involved.
 
JOURNALIST: You mentioned as well that the northern suburbs continue to be a bit of a hotspot for the trade. Is that still the case, where a lot of these raids are occurring?
 
MICHAELS: We are seeing significant levels in the north, yes.
 
JOURNALIST: Has there been any more cases of businesses that sell illegal tobacco and vapes, has there been any more cases of standover tactics from criminal organisations in Victoria that you've heard of in the past?
 
MICHAELS: Other than what's been reported in the media, I’m not aware of anything else.
 
JOURNALIST: How concerning is that?
 
MICHAELS: It is concerning. We have not seen the levels of those sorts of reports here in South Australia that we've seen in Victoria, which is a good thing. So we are fully expecting for that not to be a significant issue. I understand that the trade works differently in South Australia and Victoria, we haven't seen that level of criminal activity.
 
JOURNALIST: How do you stop people - the particular guy who was deported from Melbourne is now based in Dubai - how do you stop him from making these threats when he's in a different country?
 
MICHAELS: That's certainly a matter for police, state and federal, to make sure that that sort of activity is stopped. Our compliance is really targeting those stores that are selling illegal vapes and tobacco. In terms of importing, that is why we certainly need the help of Australian Border Force, and they are doing very good job in making sure some of that product is stopped at borders.
 
JOURNALIST: Where do these vapes go once you seize them?
 
MICHAELS: They are in a secure storage facility and used as evidence in prosecutions.
 
JOURNALIST: And once that happens?
 
MICHAELS: They will be destroyed.
 
JOURNALIST: Have any arrests been conducted or made during these raids?
 
MICHAELS: Because Consumer Business Services is the agency involved, they will prosecute. They do not have powers of arrest, so they prosecute once they conduct those rates and get that evidence.
 
JOURNALIST: Have any reports been made or any summons issued?
 
MICHAELS: I understand that they are all under investigation from recent raids.
 
JOURNALIST: Given the $680,000 worth of vapes have been seized or taken off the streets since the 1st of July and then the recent seizure of the 160,000. Can you talk to us just about the significance of that? Because that sounds like a fairly significant bust in the scheme of things, nearly $700,000 in several months. And then in one bust alone, there were 200,000?
 
MICHAELS: Yeah, it was a significant raid, and it was good to get that level of product off the street. That will continue. That level of activity will continue. We know there is still quite a challenge to get this product off the streets, and we expect to see some significant raids in the near future.
 
JOURNALIST: Back when this was first announced, the issue seemed to be interrupting supply chains. When you make a bust like $160,000 does that have like a decent dent to the supply chain, or is it still widespread?
 
MICHAELS: Anecdotally, it is still quite widespread. This will help, but we'll continue those efforts through Consumer and Business Services and working with other agencies to make sure we get as much product off the streets as we can.
 
JOURNALIST: Federal Minister, can we ask, do you have an aggregated number for similar sorts of raids across the nation, or are there not really comparable stats?
 
BUTLER: We don't right now. As I said, we have seized through our border controls more than 5.2 million vapes since the 1st of January. ABF has seized a little over 4 million of those, and the others have been seized by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, usually in warehouses having already got into the border. This has been incredibly successful. Our first goal was to shut down the trade coming in. Just to give you a sense of the degree to which that has interrupted business as usual as it was over previous years, there is quite a clear industry in China, for example, exporting vapes. Their industry newsletter in the first half of this year reported a more than 90% reduction in exports to Australia, and talked about the degree to which the efforts of the hard working staff at Border Force - maybe that's not what the newsletter described them as, it’s how I described them - the hard working staff at the Border Force had really shut down and interrupted that supply. So we're very confident that we're making a big dent on the supply over the border. Obviously, though, before that import ban, one would expect that there was a fair bit of product stockpiled before the 1st of January that's still in country, that is still making its way into retail premises of the type that Minister Michaels has talked about.
 
All of the state and territories are undertaking some sort of on the ground enforcement activity, usually in cooperation with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, which is the federal body that has overarching responsibility for these laws. I really want to pay credit to the degree of effort from this government, though, here in South Australia. The extra resources that this government has found, at a time where all budgets are under pressure, to make a real difference on the ground here. They understand just how significant public health threat this is to young people and the level of expectation from school communities and parents that that we keep up this effort. That this is not just a question of passing some laws and then sitting back and seeing what happens. We are determined every week, every month, to do what we can to take these vapes off the street. Now we've never pretended this was going to be easy. We know that material will find its way into the country. It's long been illegal to import a whole range of illicit drugs, and with the best efforts of the Border Force, some of it still makes its way into the country, and we know that there is still a big incentive for organised crime to earn revenue from this so that they can bankroll their other criminal activities like drug trafficking, sex trafficking and the like. So I've never pretended this was going to be easy or could be a problem that could be fixed overnight. I just want to send a very clear message, though, to parents and school communities that our government, the South Australian Government, and others around the country, are determined to keep fighting this menace.
 
JOURNALIST: Just from what you said before, are you suggesting, there's still significant stockpiles across the country?
 
BUTLER: At the end of the day, we don't know – to an earlier question - we don't know how much product has evaded the legal efforts to interrupt supply. We know we are having a significant effect on the supply over the border. We're seizing millions of these vapes. And frankly, vapes because of the metal content and such like, is a little easier to detect than illicit cigarettes, for example. So we are having an impact. The industry overseas is making it clear that we're having an impact. I've noticed the impact on the Australian market. Other governments around the world are looking at what we've done and starting to copy the sorts of bans that we've put in place. But we know from real world experience that this stuff will be, you know, locked up in warehouses somewhere, finding its way into retail stores that are willing or determined to flout the laws that our government and the South Australian Government have put in place, and we're determined to keep fighting.
 
JOURNALIST: Border Force mentioned month on month increases in detections, so how much of a problem is that the Commonwealth?
 
BUTLER: I think it demonstrates we're getting better at detecting it. We're learning ways to detect it. Border Force is reporting better intelligence and feedback from private companies that are involved in what happens with traffic coming in. So yes, the last fortnightly figures I saw had, I think, more than 600,000 votes being detected and intercepted at the border in just a fortnight. So this is not dropping off. This reflects the ongoing efforts by our border officials and their increasing ability to detect these things.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I take you to the BHI results in New South Wales showing unprecedented demand in emergency departments in hospitals. Ryan Park has said, we need the help of the Commonwealth, to be blunt, they need to step up in this place and be accountable for the health care that they have to deliver. Is that an accurate assessment of the situation, and will the Commonwealth step up?
 
BUTLER: I think Minister Picton would say, as would any of his colleagues around the country, that there's nothing unique about the New South Wales hospital system. All hospital systems around the country, frankly, all hospital systems around the world right now are under extraordinary pressure. Most of them really are still dealing with the legacies of COVID: the deferred care, the increased acuity of presentations that are coming through their front doors. But here in Australia, we have the additional pressure of a decade of cuts and neglect to Medicare that have really run down general practice. And so what we have been finding is fewer and fewer people are able to find a general practitioner, get in to see their GP and particularly fewer bulk billed visits as well. And that is showing up in the emergency departments at hospitals right around the country, not just in New South Wales. And that's why we have been so determined over the past couple of years to strengthen Medicare and to reinvest back into general practice. The last two increases to the Medicare rebate have been the two biggest in the last 30 years. We've increased the Medicare rebate in two years by more than the former government did in nine long years. We tripled the bulk billing incentive back in November, and that's already led to almost 5 million additional free visits to the doctor. So we are determined to discharge our primary responsibility as a Commonwealth Government, and that is to support general practice. What Ryan Park says is right, the running down of general practice is putting pressure on hospital emergency departments. That's why it's been such a priority for us, as well as building a network of several dozen Medicare Urgent Care Clinics that means people are able to get urgent care outside of the hospital system, instead of again presenting to hospital EDs.
 
JOURNALIST: And when does all that extra effort, though, start to show results by reduced pressure in emergency departments, if you've been increasing the rebates and looking at the GP availability, then when is that actually going to turn the tide?
 
BUTLER: I think anyone familiar with health systems knows that it is very difficult to change things overnight, and I've never pretended that this would be a question of flicking on a switch and suddenly hospital emergency departments were not feeling pressure. I mean, they will continue to feel pressure as we start to regear general practice after a long decade of cuts and neglect. We are building these Urgent Care Clinics which are taking pressure at the lower end of acuity of emergency departments around the country. But that doesn't mean that EDs are suddenly free of that pressure. I mean, the pressure is significant in the community.
 
At the other end of the hospital system, more than the back door, rather than the front door, if you like we landed some very significant reforms to the aged care sector last week that will unleash a wave of investment in aged care facilities that will help relieve the pressure of older patients stuck in hospitals, instead of being able to be moved into aged care facilities, given that there's largely been a capital strike in the aged care sector over the last several years - again, because there was no hard reform work done by the last government. This is just long, hard work that the federal government, in partnership with South Australia and other state governments around the country, including Ryan Park in New South Wales, have to step through. We recognise that it's a priority. But I'm not going to pretend to the Australian people that we're going to fix this overnight. It's long, hard work.
 
JOURNALIST: Can I take you to the case of a South Australian couple whose story was revealed on radio this morning, who are going into retirement village. They've been looking after their son who is 38 years old. They want to take him in because he has Cerebral Palsy but they're finding it difficult to find anywhere to go. What avenues are available for them? I understand that it's open to retirement villages to accept them. But that doesn't mean they necessarily have to, either. They're caught in a very difficult situation. Is there anything federal or state governments - whoever wants to step up – do they have any solutions or answers to the situation?
 
BUTLER: Retirement villages are regulated by state governments. We've been very determined at a federal level - talking about this couple's son - to provide people with lifelong disability with supports through the NDIS that can follow them, really, wherever they go. It's a long way from the experience 30 years ago, where people really were accommodated in large institutions. So from a federal government point of view, the NDIS package, that I assume this younger gentleman is supported by, could follow into a retirement village, or in any other setting. That really has been one of the overarching principles of the NDIS. But as to whether under the state retirement villages legislation that can be accommodated, I might hand to Chris.
 
PICTON: Thanks, Mark. So Nat Cook is now the Minister for Ageing and Seniors  and has responsibility for retirement villages. She said that she's very keen meet this family and hear about their issues. Ultimately, we do want to have an ability for people to get access to good retirement living. We also understand, really, that there's people who are ageing but also have caring responsibilities, as well. I think that there are a number of retirement villages that do display flexibility when it comes to these sorts of arrangements. Clearly, that hasn't been the experience in this family. I think what Nat is keen to do is to sit down with this family, talk to a number of those village providers, and see if there's a way to navigate this, to resolve their issues.
 
JOURNALIST: What’s your understanding of the laws? Is the case that if you're over the age of 55 or of a certain age bracket that you're not allowed in? Or is it up to the individual retirement village?
 
PICTON: I think Nat said on radio she's going to be looking into that specific issue in terms of the law. So, I'll let her answer for that. Except to say that obviously retirement villages are designed for seniors, for people over the age of 55, but getting the balance right between a retirement village that meets their housing requirements but also allows some flexibility for the issue here, and something that the Minister is keen to look at.
 
JOURNALIST: So a few more for Minister Butler. On the menopause inquiry, the government hasn't responded to the reproductive health practice inquiry more than a year after it's handed down. Does that mean women won't expect a response to this inquiry until after the election?
 
BUTLER: We have put in place some initiatives in response to the Senate Inquiry into Reproductive Health, including the last Budget, particularly around the upskilling of general practitioners in a number of areas that were identified by that Inquiry. But I've also said that a number of the other more substantial recommendations from the Inquiry are still under consideration by government. Ged Kearney, who's the Assistant Minister for Health, who also has particular responsibility for Women's Health, has a group of women's health experts advising her, more generally, on what we might do in that area, and obviously that includes reproductive health. I'm really looking forward to considering the menopause inquiry. We again made some investments in the Budget this year again to upskill general practitioners in supporting patients who are going through perimenopause or menopause. But there will be more to do, I think, and I’m determined to look at that report very closely.
 
JOURNALIST: The inquiry said that trainee doctors are getting as little as one hour of training of their whole degree in menopause and perimenopause. Is that acceptable? I mean, you talk about upskilling, but shouldn't it be done from the ground?
 
BUTLER: I think that will be one of the very serious recommendations that we would want to look at. This is obviously a very big part of a general practitioners work. It's a very significant part of the population at any one time: women going through menopause. I think there is a general understanding and acceptance that, frankly, this has been an area that is significantly underdone in our primary care sector.
 
JOURNALIST: Just briefly on IV fluids, we're hearing that doctors are still having to conserve fluids and are really feeling these shortages. You've mentioned that you secured 22 million bags. When will we still see that on the front line?
 
BUTLER: We've started to see those bags arrive in Australia and should be on the front line, now. I haven't received any recent reports of shortage over the last couple of weeks. I'm obviously keeping my eye pretty closely on this. And the additional 22 million bags, which is the equivalent of a little bit more than three months total demand in the Australian system. I'm very confident we'll alleviate the sort of shortages that we have seen over the last several months.
 
JOURNALIST: And in terms of state by state, how would that be distributed? Is there going to be a bidding war going on, or is it going to be equally allocated?
 
BUTLER: We wanted to make sure that proportionally, all states got access to this.
 
JOURNALIST: And just briefly, on RSV yesterday, Minister Picton said that rolling out this massive program to get vaccinations and antibodies out, that he said he will have your support. Is that right?
 
PICTON: I don’t know that that is entirely what I said.

BUTLER: Well, even if you didn’t, you will! I'm here to say that he will have my support. Look this, this is a complex space. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which provides advice on what can be included in the National Immunisation Program has provided some advice about a maternal vaccine. So that's an RSV vaccine that's administered to women during late-stage pregnancy, which then provides a level of immunity to the newborn child for the first several months of their life. That has been subject to a positive recommendation by the Advisory Committee, which is in the very late stages of finalisation between the Government and the sponsor. So that covers off the maternal vaccine part of the challenge. The South Australian Government, as I understand it, yesterday announced an intention to provide access to a different product, which is not strictly a vaccine - it's a monoclonal antibody - so it's a therapy provided to newborn infants and provides them, if they didn't get access to that immunity through their mother, provides them with access to that. Now that is a program that states are rolling out. We've had a talk about it as a group of health ministers. The Commonwealth is taking a sort of a leadership role, if you like, to negotiate supply and price with that sponsor, which is Sanofi, on behalf of all state and territory governments. But currently that product has not being subject to a positive recommendation from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, so it's not on the PBS. And I'm not able to list anything on the PBS under the National Health Act, unless I've had that positive recommendation from the Advisory Committee. So where that leads is really is, as a group of governments, is trying to negotiate the best supply and price arrangement where a newborn infant has not got access to RSV immunity through a maternal vaccine.
 
JOURNALIST: Do you expect it to be on the PBS soon, do you expect it to be approved in the next few months?
 
BUTLER: The Sanofi product, monoclonal antibody?
 
JOURNALIST: Yes.
 
BUTLER: No, that's been considered by PBAC once before and not recommended. It's not uncommon for a sponsor to take an application back to PBAC with a slightly different case. And I don't rule that out, that's ultimately a matter of for Sanofi. But I can't imagine, to be blunt about it, that that would all happen in time for winter 2025. Which is why we're very much focused on the maternal vaccine, and it has been the subject of a positive recommendation from PBAC. And if we're able to land a deal with Pfizer, which is the sponsor of that product, could be listed on the National Immunisation Program - the NIP - in time for winter 2025. And in terms of the product for newborn infants, who haven't got that that immunity, then that's something which state, territory and the Commonwealth governments have decided to cooperate with a single supply and price arrangement that we're in the process of negotiating. But obviously the South Australian government has as an early commitment made that very clear to the South Australian community.
 
JOURNALIST: And one to Minister Michaels as well. In your other portfolio, we're expecting Premier’s Review sometime soon, are we, into the Museum?
 
MICHAELS: Yes, we are expecting something soon, so we will have announcements shortly.
 
JOURNALIST: Are you satisfied as Arts Minister that all relevant bodies have been consulted properly?
 
MICHAELS: Yes, the review panel's done extensive work on consulting with a range of people and formulated that into a report with recommendations that we’ll see shortly.