Press conference with Minister Butler, Adelaide – 26 February 2026

MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thanks all so much. Thank you to Lutheran Care for hosting us this morning. I'm joined today by Kathryn McKinley, who is the national President of Speech Pathology Australia. I'm joined by Tara as well, who will be speaking with her family, with Patrick and her three children, including Oliver. I asked whether this was baby Leon's first press conference, it is, but Tara tells me it's her first press conference too, so for the whole family.
 
And I'm here to announce a really exciting initiative that we promised at the last election to strengthen Medicare even further, part of a very broad program at making it easier for people to see a doctor, more affordable for people to see a doctor, but also modernising Medicare to ensure it's keeping pace with the changing needs of Australian community members. This followed some advice given to government from the Medicare Taskforce that had a look at the 5,800 items on the Medicare schedule, and also a very strong campaign from a range of different groups, Speech Pathology Australia first and foremost among them, but also the Australasian Cleft Lip and Palate Association, and a coalition of parents who were essentially saying that Medicare was not giving enough support to their children and young adults with a range of speech and language disorders. Cleft lip and palate is one of them, which impacts maybe 10,000 or so young Australians under the age of 25. But stuttering and speech and sound disorders impact as many as another 375,000 young Australians. And we know early intervention and intensive treatment can be just so important to ensure that those young children and teenagers and young adults get the best possible start in life.
 
Up until now, those young people have been restricted to five speech pathology sessions funded by Medicare. Under the regime that I'm announcing today, which will kick in on 1 March next week, those young Australians will now be entitled to eight assessment sessions and 20 treatment sessions, which brings them into line with a Medicare entitlement that has existed for some time for young people under the age of 25 with a range of neurodevelopmental disorders or different types of disability.
 
I want to thank Speech Pathology Australia, Kathryn, her organisation, but also parents like Tara and Patrick and so many others besides who've come to see me, come to see colleagues of mine, and made the case for this really important change. Pat Conroy, one of my colleagues, Kate Thwaites in Melbourne, have been particularly vocal about this and brought people to see me, made cases, made speeches in the Parliament for this change. And I'm delighted after a period of time of us being able to consider it, promising it at the last election, that next week, it will become a reality for 385,000 young Australians who need some support to ensure they get the best possible start in life.
 
I'm going to hand over now to Kathryn McKinley to talk on behalf of Speech Pathology Australia, and then we might hear from Tara and maybe Leon as well if he's woken up but he hasn't yet.
 
KATHRYN MCKINLEY, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, SPEECH PATHOLOGY AUSTRALIA: Good morning, and thank you, Minister. Today is a significant moment for children, families and for our profession. For more than a decade, Speech Pathology Australia has advocated for a Medicare system that better reflects the communication and swallowing needs of people right across the country. That sustained effort has delivered meaningful change. From 1 March 2026, Medicare will expand access to speech pathology services under the MBS M10 group. Children and young people under 25 with stuttering, speech sound disorders or cleft lip and/or palate will be eligible for Medicare rebates for assessment and treatment. For the first time, they'll be able to access rebates for up to eight assessment sessions and up to 20 treatment sessions in total up to the age of 25.
 
This is a major step forward in improving early access to evidence-based speech pathology care. Speech pathologists work every day with children and young people experiencing these conditions. We see their strengths, their potential, and at times, their frustration. Now Medicare eligibility focuses on an expanded range of conditions seen in clinical practice. This means children will have clearer pathways to care. It also means families will have greater certainty. We know that early and consistent intervention makes a difference.
Communication underpins learning, social connection, emotional wellbeing, and opportunity. When children can express themselves, they are better able to engage at school, build friendships, and participate fully in their communities. That is the impact of speech pathology, and that is why increased access matters so deeply.
 
I would like to acknowledge the constructive engagement of government, the department, and other stakeholders throughout this process. Speech Pathology Australia has worked consistently and collaboratively to provide the clinical evidence and the experience needed to inform funding decisions. And this outcome demonstrates what sustained, evidence-driven advocacy can achieve. From 1 March, more children will have the opportunity to experience that support. More families have clearer pathways to care, and more speech pathologists will be able to provide evidence-based intervention at the right time.
 
And so, to help us understand what this change means in real life, I would now like to invite Tara to share her family's experience.
 
TARA HEALY, SPEECH PATHOLOGIST: Thank you, Kathryn and Minister, and thank you here today to share our experience. We came to speech pathology when Oli was almost three years of age and he was expecting a new sibling in the family. And my husband and I had started to notice that our very confident little boy who was very social and loved talking to people had started to develop some disfluencies or stuttering. I come to this with my own lived experience as a parent, but I am also a speech pathologist. I understood the importance of early intervention. And as a family, we decided that we wanted to help support our little person and make sure that he had every opportunity to be the confident communicator, the social little butterfly that he was, and not feel the elements of frustration that we could see arising for him.
 
After about six to eight months of monitoring and waiting and just observing and working with his childcare educators and his ELC teachers, who also had noted a few red flags in this area for us, we decided to seek out working with a speech pathologist who did specialise in this space. We met Julia, and we went through several months of support across 2025, which really did help Oli and his speech. What we saw was a reduction in his frustration, especially around the times that he was socially communicating with his peers. And we noticed that his disfluencies and his stutter would dissipate after treatment, especially when he wasn't being heard by his peers, which was really something so important to us because we could see initially the rising frustration for him and we didn't want it to impact him later on in life.
 
After several months of speech pathology, we have finally come to a point where we're now in maintenance of our intensive treatment. Intensive treatment was weekly for several months. We are now seeing Julia, our speech pathologist, on a less regular basis, but it's still filled with fun and joy. But it is nice that we are tapering off, and we've seen such improvement through the impact of early intervention.
 
We were very fortunate along our journey that our GP supported us in providing a Medicare plan so we were able to access some of the supports that have been talked about already today. But the majority of our journey has been privately funded, which with the cost of living increases and different elements of raising a family has its own stresses on itself, but it's something that we wouldn't pass up and we are so glad that we've done for our family and for our children. So thank you.
 
BUTLER: Questions? Do you want to start with Tara?
 
JOURNALIST: Yeah, if that's okay. How many sessions has it taken to get Oli to this point now?
 
HEALY: We started back in early 2025 and at the end of 2025, we moved to maintenance. We were on weekly sessions for several months.
 
JOURNALIST: And then, obviously before this came in, it was only five sessions that were Medicare funded. How do you think this will help I guess you guys and also other families?
 
HEALY: One hundred per cent. This new initiative is going to give families confidence to stay on with their service. I can see more longevity of families within services because when you are given five sessions, you almost feel a little bit constrained to that’s what it will be, especially from a financial point of view if you are privately funding. But I think it’s just going to allow greater accessibility and greater awareness of what supports, because most of the supports were offered, and the intervention approaches were intensive for many, many sessions over several months. So 20 sessions of support will go a very, very long way for many families.
 
JOURNALIST: Had you heard from other people that there was concerns with those five sessions, that maybe they would’ve stopped treatment after that?
 
HEALY: Yes, I have from our friends and family who have accessed. One hundred percent I understand that sentiment, but also as a practitioner I see that often families who I work with in this space, in intervention, come and they are constrained by five sessions. We work within that scope.
 
JOURNALIST: I guess, maybe a question for you as well, but what does one session do? What does it involve to help someone get to a level of bettering their speech?
 
MCKINLEY: Speech pathologists work with families and in early intervention settings and school settings to initially assess a child’s speech, and then also to plan treatment. And that is a process that continues on. It doesn’t stop after five sessions. This change to the MBS and the M10 group provides an opportunity to provide children and young people with the intervention that they need that goes beyond the five sessions.

JOURNALIST: You said in the past that you believe that workforce to provide support to children and their families under Thriving Kids already exist. How confident are you with that?
 
BUTLER: I still am confident about that. Kathryn may have something to add about the speech pathology workforce, but those allied health professionals are critical professions that are working with young children now, particular speechies but also occupational therapists and some others, are currently working often in a very intensive way with children through the NDIS. Over time over a number of years, a lot of those children or their equivalence under the age of nine will be on the Thriving Kids program rather than on the NDIS. And that program and that model of care has a clear pillar of targeted supports which will be delivered by exactly the same allied health professionals, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, some physios and others as well.
 
We’re in the process now, particularly of state governments, designing how those targeted supports will be delivered, and there will be some transition, I guess, of what the way in which some of those allied health professionals work and how they are paid. But ultimately, it is still therapy or targeted support being delivered to young children by this really important cohort of professionals.
 
JOURNALIST: There are shortages of speech pathologists across many parts of the country. How will you ensure that kids can be supported without burning out the existing workforce we do have?
 
BUTLER: As I said, those professionals they’re not just speechies, but others as well, are giving a lot of support currently to children through the NDIS. That support will continue to children over coming years. It will be delivered in a slightly different way, maybe in some different settings and paid in a different way, in a sense that state governments will commission some of that work and maybe employ people to deliver it. And that’s really a matter state governments will determine. The work is still going to be there. It will be delivered in a slightly different way. It is not a net addition to the level of therapy that’s currently being delivered to children under the age of nine.
 
To the broader question of workforce supply, to be blunt about it, there are workforce challenges right across the health and social care systems, in our hospitals, in primary care, in allied health, in aged care, in disabilities. It’s something we’re very, very focused on, making sure we are training more young Australians into these important professions, also where we need to bring in overseas trained professionals, particularly from countries where we have high levels of confidence in their training. But with a growing population, with a growing incidence of some complex chronic diseases and with an ageing population as well, there is growing demand for good quality health and social care. And as a result, supply challenge is right across the system. I’m not sure that Kathryn wants to talk about speech pathology in particular, the pipeline?
 
MCKINLEY: We know there’s a growing demand for speech pathologists right across the country. And speech pathologists work in a range of different settings; so aged care, community health, private practice, public hospital settings. And certainly, we are growing our workforce to try and meet that growing demand so that we can support every Australian who has communication and swallowing support needs.
 
JOURNALIST: Just back to the Minister, some therapists say best practice isn’t providing support in group settings or within schools, it’s an individualised approach. What’s your response to that?
 
BUTLER: I think that’s right. I wouldn’t disagree with that, that different children, or different adults, for that matter, but I assume you’re talking in the context of Thriving Kids, Charles. Different children will require therapy in a different way depending on their needs, and I think the Thriving Kids model that was developed through a pretty intense process of consideration and advice reflects that. Not every child is the same. Not every child’s needs are the same, and those needs will be met in a variety of ways. We have to remember, there was life before the NDIS. A lot of these services were delivered by state governments in a range of different ways. If not delivered by them, commissioned by them, supported in some cases by the Medicare system as we’ve talked about today. In many ways, it’s about scaling up and rebuilding some of those services that existed 15 years ago or so that are easy to access for parents, that are readily accessible in their communities, not particularly in schools, many of them will be delivered in other settings.

JOURNALIST: I know it was probably touched on a little bit before, but in terms of obviously it’s capped at 385,000 under 25. Why was that decision made, and are we helping other people who might still need those services after the age of 25 as well?
 
BUTLER: This is a Medicare entitlement that's existed for quite a while. The entitlement that has funded five sessions is whole of population, so a GP needs to refer you to those sessions, say that the patient, whether they're a four-year-old like Ollie or an older person, a GP is essentially the gateway into those five sessions. This entitlement has existed for some time for people under the age of 25, as I said, with a range of different neurodevelopmental disorders and eligible disabilities. And the Medicare Review Advisory Committee that had that big long look at all of our 5,800 Medicare items some years ago, recommended that this cohort, it's 385,000 or so right now, we think, but this cohort of under-25s should join that Medicare item.
 
JOURNALIST: Thanks. Puberty blockers; is the interim NHMRC advice still scheduled for mid-year?
 
BUTLER: Yes.
 
JOURNALIST: And do you agree with the Prime Minister, who said “difficult” when asked to describe Grace Tame in one word yesterday?
 
BUTLER: Grace Tame is an extraordinary young Australian. I still consider her young. I can't remember how old she is, but she's been an incredibly powerful voice for victims of abuse in this country. Her life has been difficult. She's talked very honestly about that, but she remains a really powerful voice for so many victims of abuse who don't feel that they can be their own voice.
 
JOURNALIST: How would you describe Grace in one word?
 
BUTLER: I have to say, I think very few people are able to be described in one word. I'm not a big fan of the one word game that's played sometimes by media. And certainly, Grace Tame, the richness of her life experience and the way in which she gives voice to others, isn't something I think that can be fairly described in one word. Thank you.