Minister for Health and Aged Care's doorstop in Adelaide on 14 January 2024

Read Minister Butler's doorstop on importation of illegal tobacco, bulk billing and new STI campaign

The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care

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MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Good morning, everyone, I’m here in sunny Adelaide. Today we have announced the next piece of our government’s comprehensive plan to stamp out vaping and to continue to drive down the rates of smoking in our community. This announcement follows the passage of laws in the Parliament just before Christmas to update the regulations on tobacco control after 10 years of inactivity. It also follows a ban that was introduced on the 1st of January on imports on disposable vapes that are marketed and targeted towards our kids.

 

Today the Treasurer and I announced $188 million in additional resources into the Australian Border Force for a comprehensive crackdown on illegal cigarettes and illegal tobacco. These additional resources will help fund activity overseas to shut down this illegal trafficking at source. It will help boost interception activities at the border by ABS, including through the use of new technologies like AI - or artificial intelligence. It will also help fund intelligence gathering activities in concert with state and territory health and policing authorities to intercept the activity of organised crime gangs.

 

Have no doubt, illegal cigarettes and illegal tobacco are an ATM for the illegal activities of organised crime, everyone pays a price for illegal cigarettes and illegal tobacco. Not only are illegal cigarettes undermining Australia's public health, they are also helping fund the activities of organised crime gangs - activities like drug trafficking and sex trafficking. That's why the government is absolutely committed to stamping this out.

 

JOURNALIST: How exactly will the crackdown work? What will Border Force operations look like compared to now?

 

BUTLER: This will be an end-to-end crackdown. As I said, we'll be boosting activity overseas to do all that we can to shut down this illegal trafficking at its source before these illegal cigarettes reach Australia's border in the first place. We're also going to trial new surveillance and interception activities at the Australian border. ABF is trailing new technologies like the use of AI to help boost the interception of illegal cigarettes and tobacco, but also vapes, as they enter the border in the first place. And finally, we recognise that this is ultimately an ATM for organised crime. We are going to work closely with state and territory policing authorities in intercepting and gathering intelligence on the activities of organised crime gangs. Organised crime gangs are using illegal cigarettes, tobacco, and vapes as an ATM to fund their activities like sex trafficking and drug trafficking. Everyone is paying a price for this activity.

 

JOURNALIST: Obviously tobacco here is taxed, with illegal tobacco, how much tax revenue do you think we’re losing out on?

 

BUTLER: The latest estimates from the Australian Tax Office suggests that the market in illegal cigarettes and illegal tobacco cost taxpayers more than $2 billion, maybe as much as $3 billion every single year, but that's not the most important point. Yes, this is a rip off of taxpayers, but it's also undermining our public health and it is a funding source for organised crime gangs who are using this revenue to fund drug trafficking, to fund sex trafficking and more.

 

JOURNALIST: Where could that extra money - that $2 billion - be spent?

 

BUTLER: Obviously there's always good ways to spend that revenue, helping public health activities, helping support people who want to give up the cigarettes - young people who have indicated in polls they overwhelmingly want to kick the habit of vaping. So, this is a rip off of taxpayers, it means we're not able to fund good activities that the government should be doing. But as I say, just as importantly, it is undermining our public health, and it is funding some awful organised crime gangs who use this as an easy way to fund their drug and sex trafficking activities.

 

JOURNALIST: So, Ed Husic has announced the Government's intentions to regulate AI in high-risk settings, including health care, what additional regulations are you considering in the health care space?

 

BUTLER: Ed Husic, the Minister with responsibility for new technology, has announced this morning that we will legislate as a government to regulate the use of artificial intelligence - or AI - in high-risk settings. Law enforcement is one of those settings, obviously, but so is health care. AI does pose some real potential for improvements in health care, but we want to make sure that that's done in a safe and responsible way. So, Minister Husic will have more to say about our plans in coming days.

 

JOURNALIST: Has the government received any early indications that tripling the bulk billing incentive has improved bulk billing rates by GPs, and when will you know for sure?

 

BUTLER: It will take some time for the data to flow through in a comprehensive way. But already there's a lot of anecdotal reporting of GP practices across the country who might have shifted to private billing, including gap fees charged to children or to pensioners, reverting to bulk billing. That's what doctors want to do - they want to be able to see their patients, particularly the 11 million pensioners, concession card holders, children under the age of 16, free of charge. There's already a lot of anecdotal reporting and practices have changed their behaviour as a result of this.

 

We’re publishing very comprehensive bulk billing data on a regular basis now. These new bulk billing incentive arrangements only took effect in November, so, over the course of the next few months into 2024 we'll start to see that data come through.

 

JOURNALIST: 81% of Australians are unhappy with the cost of living relief, does the government need to be doing more?

 

BUTLER: We fully understand the pressure Australian households are feeling through this global inflation shock that followed the pandemic and was aggravated by the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. That's why we worked so hard last year on a $23 billion package of cost of living measures designed to relieve pressure on households without adding further pressure to inflation. We know how counterproductive that would have been and indeed ABS - The Australian Bureau of Statistics - and other agencies have actually indicated that many of our measures actually reduced inflation in areas like energy bills and areas like childcare. In addition to those there were cheaper medicines measures, and as I said, further support for free visits to the doctor, as well as free TAFE and the like.

 

We've been doing a lot of work over the course of 2023 understanding just how much pressure households are on but obviously, there is more for us to do through 2024. There are measures already legislated to take effect over the course of this year, more free TAFE, additional medicines that will be covered by 60 days prescriptions in March and September this year. But the Prime Minister has said that there's more for us to do. That's why he has tasked Treasury and Finance with presenting government with further proposals to relieve that pressure on households. We'll be looking at those proposals over coming weeks and months.

 

JOURNALIST: It’s been year since the government halved subsidised psychology sessions promising an alternative. Are vulnerable people who need access to mental health care better off since you made those changes?

 

BUTLER: What I said at the time was that this short-term measure to lift the number of sessions in the Better Access program from 10 to 20 - that measure which the former government put in place for two years only as a response to the COVID pandemic - one of the things that it had done is reduce the number of people who are getting into the system in the first place. It reduced that number by tens and tens of thousands. So, what that meant was that the vast numbers of Australians were missing out on any therapy at all.

 

What I'm pleased to say is that over the course of last year tens and tens of thousands more Australians got access to therapy and that's something that we said was an objective of our government - to make sure that the access to therapy was as equitable as possible. We know there is more to do about this program. The evaluation of the program showed it worked well for people who are able to get access to it, but it is highly inequitable, there are significant parts of Australia, particularly lower socioeconomic suburbs in our cities, and particularly rural and regional Australia, have very little access to this at all. And that's why I'm working so hard with the mental health sector to find ways in which to make the system more equitable and to provide support for people with more complex needs.

 

JOURNALIST: Can you talk about the new community health campaign to tackle the rising rates of STIs?

 

BUTLER: It's been 15 years since an information campaign has been out there to support safe sex and what we've seen over the last few years is infection rates go up, but testing rates go down, and that's exactly the opposite of what we need. So, this latest awareness campaign will just help remind young Australians, and particularly young sexually active Australians, of the importance of using protection whenever you're having sex, but also the importance of getting tested regularly. We want to see those infection rates come down some sexually transmitted infections, like syphilis, for example, can have very serious long-term impacts on your ongoing health. So, this is the first campaign in 15 years, I think it's overdue. We're confident it will help provide the information that young Australians need to go about their lives in an enjoyable way, but do it safely.

 

JOURNALIST: Doctors say wait times in Adelaide to get an appointment are blowing out due to a shortage of doctors and that's contributing to more people going to hospitals. I suppose that is a nationwide problem as well. What's being done to fix that?

 

BUTLER: National Cabinet, as you know, Rob - the Prime Minister, the premiers and chief ministers have been directing health ministers to do a range of things to improve access, particularly in general practice. What we've done is look at a range of regulations for the import of overseas trained health professionals - doctors and nurses - to help alleviate some of the supply problems we'll have in Australia – the number of GPs available. We're also rolling out our network of Urgent Care Clinics to take that pressure off hospitals. Already that is having an impact with 137,000 services provided in just a matter of months, many of which would otherwise have been clogging up our hospital emergency departments. Again, we know there is more to do but we have no higher priority in health care policy than revitalising general practice and strengthening Medicare.

 

JOURNALIST: Just regarding the Taiwanese election, there has been strong endorsement of the government there - a practical rejection of those calling for closer ties with China. What perspective do you bring to this?

 

BUTLER: The government congratulates Dr Lai on his election victory over the course of the weekend and the government looks forward to continuing our important relationship with Taiwan, obviously in the context of the long standing bipartisan one-China policy.

 

JOURNALIST: Does the government have any concerns that tensions could be increased across the Taiwan Strait as a result of this election victory in Taiwan?

 

BUTLER: I'll leave that to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and others to comment upon. Obviously, we don't want to see any disruption to the status quo on the Taiwan Strait, that's been a long standing position of Australian Governments of both political persuasion, reflecting our long standing bipartisan policy around one-China.

 

JOURNALIST: The federal government has got somewhat of an addiction when it comes to tobacco taxes. It collects more in tobacco taxes than it does in superannuation and petrol. How do you reconcile that with your stated desire to get people off the ciggies?

 

BUTLER: Evidence here in Australia and across the world, Andrew, demonstrates very clearly that price signals are a very important part of a comprehensive plan to drive down smoking rates. The evidence on that is very, very clear, and that's been a position of both governments over the last 15 years or so - the former government increased tobacco excise by well more than 100% over the nine years of their term in office. That position reflects very clear evidence about its effectiveness in continuing to drive down smoking rates and that's why our comprehensive crackdown on illegal cigarettes and illegal tobacco is such an important part of our plan to stamp out vaping and to continue driving down smoking rates in the community.

 

JOURNALIST: On the STI program, targeting dating apps like Tinder, is this the way to get the message across from the government?

 

BUTLER: Our job as a government is to get that information across to a target audience, and in a sexually transmitted infection awareness campaign that target audiences is broadly young people, particularly in the age cohort of 20 to 34 year olds. That's why we're using the media that they use, which is social media, dating apps like Tinder, Grindr, and others. There will also be outdoor advertising in bars and nightclubs, universities and the like. We've carefully researched this campaign, we're confident it will do what we intend it to do, which is to provide information in a friendly, accessible way to young Australians about practicing safe sex, using protection and getting regularly tested.

 

JOURNALIST: What do you know about ‘Beforeplay?’

 

BUTLER: These campaigns were designed by experts, they were tested very comprehensively, I'm sure that the campaigns will resonate with young Australians - I don't pretend to be a young Australian.

 

 

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