Minister for Health and Aged Care, press conference – 25 October 2025

Read the transcript from Minister Butler's press conference on the national targeted skin cancer screening roadmap and private health insurance.

The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care

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MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: It's such a great honour to be here with the Australians of the Year for 2024 Georgina Long AO and Richard Scolyer AO at the Melanoma Institute Australian National Annual Conference, which has about 700 people or more in the auditorium They're thinking about ways in which we can continue to battle Australia's national cancer. It is described as that with no sense of pride, but recognising that our diagnosis rate is about 10 times the global average. Happily, we also lead though in research, in development, and innovation in no small part, due to the pioneering work of Georgina and Richard and their Institute. We've been talking in the Conference about the really important role of prevention and new awareness campaigns that have been led by Institute and have also been funded by government, in things as broad ranging as the use of sun beds in Australia, but also the tanning culture, which is so deeply rooted in this country. And the need, particularly to educate younger Australians about the health harms associated with tanning. We've also been hearing some fantastic insights about new treatments that are really ensuring that Australians who only a decade ago, who were diagnosed with melanoma, who might have faced a very poor survival rate are facing much better chances of five-year survival, again, in no small part, due to the pioneering research and development of Georgina and Richard as well.
 
But today, we also made an announcement that deals with the really important question of early identification. We know with all cancers, including melanoma, that the earlier you identify and diagnose the cancer, the much more likely you are to be able to treat it and survive and even cure it, perhaps. Today, we have announced that the Institute will lead a really important piece of work to develop and research a targeted national skin cancer screening program. I'll let Georgina and Richard talk about the details of that, but I do want to say that this work that the Institute will lead, along with the Institute of Health and Welfare, our key health data body in Australia, will in time add a fifth national cancer screening program to the really proud record we have with the established programs in cervical cancer, bowel cancer, and breast cancer. But also the lung cancer screening program, which is a critically important targeted screening program that we're in the process of rolling out right now. This is a really great announcement. I'm delighted that the Institute has pushed so hard for it and has indicated a willingness to lead it. I'm confident will make a very big difference, not just for Australia, but in time for others to copy around the world.
 
AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR, PROFESSOR RICHARD SCOLYER AO, MELANOMA INSTITUTE AUSTRALIA: Thank you, Minister Butler, that's an incredible opportunity for all Australians. What we're trying to do is identify Australians who are at the highest risk of developing melanoma so they can be screened very carefully in order for their melanoma to be detected early. As the Minister said, if you detect melanoma early, most patients will be cured from it so it's very important we do it. But we need to identify the patients who are at higher risk to enable that to happen.
 
AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR, PROFESSOR GEORGINA LONG AO, MELANOMA INSTITUTE AUSTRALIA: It's much the same way as we have for the breast and colorectal screening program identifying those who are at risk. We know that melanoma is Australia's cancer. Someone is diagnosed with melanoma every 30 minutes. Someone dies from melanoma in this country every six hours. And for those who are not at high risk the best message we can give those people is know the skin you're in. And even better than that, for all Australians, primary prevention is the best way we can protect ourselves from skin cancer. Remember your sun safety rules as we head into summer; slip on a hat, put on your shirt, put on your sunscreen, Slide on some sunglasses and Seek shade. Sun safety in everything you do. Let's prevent melanoma altogether. But having a high risk screening program for those at high risk will help Australians achieve zero deaths from melanoma.
 
JOURNALIST: Georgina, how significant is today's announcement? Because you've been pushing hard to have this happen. How significant is it?
 
LONG: This is an absolute milestone for screening programs in Australia. We know that prevention and early diagnosis is our best tool against cancer, and to now add a screening program for those at high risk of melanoma and skin cancer will absolutely impact the health of our nation. We're very proud to be here to announce this endeavour.
 
JOURNALIST: And the other screening programs look at age, for example, cut offs with age, but melanoma, it's not so simple as that. Can you give us a bit of an idea? I know it's early days, but things that could be used to capture and get those people in for screening.
 
LONG: The screening program is being devised as we speak, identifying who the population we call high risk, it will be multi factorial. Age will be one component, but there are other components that actually give you your risk of melanoma in this country. It will be multi factorial. It'll be simple, though not too complicated, but those identified as high risk of melanoma in skin cancer using different aspects, age being one of them.
 
JOURNALIST: And is there a deadline to when this could all come about? Is there a time frame?
 
LONG: Anne Cust from Melanoma Institute Australia is leading this endeavour, and so I'll hand over to her.
 
MELANOMA INSTITUTE AUSTRALIA, PROFESSORY ANNE CUST: Hi, I'm Professor Anne Cust, and I'm leading the road map together with Georgina and Richard. This is a four-year program of work, and so in 2028 we'll be delivering a report to the Government with all the evidence that we have about screening and to give them some guidance on how we might implement a national targeted skin cancer screening program.
 
JOURNALIST: Is this a world first? I have never heard of this before.
 
CUST: Yes, this would be a world first program. In Germany they do have some population skin cancer screening, but it's not actually taken up particularly well at the population level, and it's not a targeted program. This would be the world first high quality, targeted screening program.
 
JOURNALIST: And just back to what Georgina was saying about multi factorial. Are we talking about things like your skin, type of skin, that sort of thing to capture those people early?
 
CUST: Yeah, there's a lot of different risk factors for melanoma, but the some of the common ones are red hair colour, people with lots of moles on their body, people with a family history, people that have had other types of skin cancer. These are the types of risk factors that we'll be looking at, also genetic risk factors too.
 
JOURNALIST: And Georgina was saying in the Conference about how far we've come with those new treatments, combining, you know, therapy, pre-surgery. Is this the next step forward to help save lives do you think?
 
CUST: Yes, I think it's really important that people who need a skin check can access one. That it's a high quality skin check, and that we've got a clear clinical pathway to treat people who've been diagnosed with melanoma.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, did you want to add anything else in terms of how the government, like the bowel and breast screening manage it?
 
BUTLER: That's certainly the intention. I mean, this is world first, so we want to make sure we've got the research and the foundation right, because this is going to be a more tricky program to roll out than the population wide programs we have, for example, in cervical cancer or in breast and bowel even though there are some age arrangements around that. This will be more targeted. We don't have a program around the world simply to take off the shelf and import. We're really interested in the work that the Institute will do here. I mean, just to give you a sense again of how this might roll out, you just have to look at the lung cancer screening program. This is something that required a lot of work to determine what the target population would be. Not everyone is going to be screened for lung cancer. It will be certain age groups, it will be people with a particular profile of smoking history. And that work, similarly, had a good research base for it, and was then considered by the Medical Services Advisory Committee - MSAC that then provided a recommendation to government about how a screening program like that would be funded and then rolled out. I would see this following exactly the same process.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, just to change tack slightly on the Western Hospital in your electorate. Do you know who the new owners are and when they will take over?
 
BUTLER: No, I don't. I know that this hospital, which is in my electorate, very close to where I live, and an important part of the healthcare system in western Adelaide has been in administration for some time. I understand there is the prospect of a purchase, but that's really a product of discussion and gossip going on in the western suburbs of Adelaide. I'm certainly hopeful that will be the case, but we're not directly involved in that process. I think the state government has had a role, and I hear there may be an announcement in the coming days.
 
JOURNALIST: And do you have any idea of whether there's going to be a closure in the oncology unit in the GP clinic?
 
BUTLER: No, I have no information about that, but I look forward to any announcement being made as soon as possible.
 
JOURNALIST: Thanks, Minister. Health insurers are saying they're going to be forced to ask you to approve above inflation premium increases for next year, and they're partly blaming that because of the new New South Wales insurance levy and extra payments to hospitals. Can you comment on that given the cost-of-living crisis we're facing now?
 
BUTLER: The first thing I'd say is, earlier this year, I approved a private health insurance premium increase that was substantially below the going inflation rate. The insurers had asked for premium increases on average of 6 per cent or more. I ended up approving, after a process of discussion with them and asking them to sharpen their pencil, an increase of slightly more than 3 per cent well below CPI, and certainly well below the increases happening elsewhere in the insurance sector. And I intend to take that approach again over the coming months. Obviously, we need to ensure there's a viable private health insurance industry and private hospital sector, but I'm also very focused on patients and members on insurance funds to ensure that their cost-of-living is not overly impacted by any increase in insurance premiums over the coming months.
 
In terms of what has happened in New South Wales, the first thing I would say is that is confined to the state of New South Wales. It is a matter that is still, as I understand it, going through the New South Wales Parliament. But if that law passes, which probably we expect, it will, that will have an impact on the state of New South Wales, and I think it's important to bear that in mind.
 
JOURNALIST: Thanks. On that private hospital viability review, I think Ramsey Healthcare said yesterday they're not expecting the government to do any kind of bailout, but now we've got the closure of the maternity ward at Gosford. Is that sort of putting pressure on you to sort of do something to help the sector?
 
BUTLER: Clearly, we're concerned about the state of the private hospital sector. But I've also said that there is not one single story about what is happening in private hospitals in Australia. It's a series of different stories, depending on whether you're in regional Australia or the major cities. And depending on the type of hospital there's so there's clearly something very different happening in primarily psychiatric hospitals compared to traditional surgery hospitals. That is really why I asked Blair Comley, the Secretary of my Department, to lead a more independent check of the health status of the private hospital sector. He has delivered that report to me. I'll be considering it over the coming couple of days, and we'll be releasing something in relation to it pretty shortly as well. Obviously, I won't be releasing the entire health check. We got very good levels of co-operation, particularly from private hospitals, in providing us with data on the basis it would be held in confidence. It was provided in good faith on that basis. Obviously, I won't be releasing that data. But I do intend to release some information that is appropriate and gives Australians, but also people in the health sector, a sense of what conclusions that health check reached.
 
JOURNALIST: Is it as dire as what they make it out to be?
 
BUTLER: I think all of the publicly available data already indicate that there has been a step down in the earnings and profitability of the private hospital sector across the board. As I said, though, that is different in different parts of the system, there is not one single story. But it is clear that cost pressures in the private hospital system are impacting their profitability and, in some cases, viability. But I'll leave the broader conclusions to the publication of what we intend to put out.
 
JOURNALIST: And that’s coming out soon?
 
BUTLER: Very shortly. Thanks everyone.

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