Press conference with Minister Butler, Canberra - 11 May, 2026

MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: About eight days ago now the world was notified and the World Health Organization was notified of an outbreak of the hantavirus on a cruise ship that I think people are now quite familiar with. This virus is very, very rare, and cases of human-to-human transmission, historically, have been rarer still. The virus also has quite a long incubation period which appears to run up to 42 days, so any question of isolation or quarantine for people potentially exposed to the virus obviously involves quite a long period compared to other viruses.
 
Although cases of human-to-human transmission are rare, there obviously has been human-to-human transition on this cruise ship. The World Health Organization reports that there have been eight cases, six that appear to have been the result of transmission from the two original patients. And of those eight cases, there have already been three deaths, it would appear.
 
As I think people are aware, passengers on this cruise ship are in the process of being repatriated from Tenerife where the ship is currently essentially stationed, and they're being repatriated to a couple of dozen different countries.
 
Now, there are five Australians; four citizens and one permanent resident that have been passengers on this ship, as well as one New Zealander who, at the moment in terms of arrangements between the Australian Government and the New Zealand Government, will be covered by repatriation arrangements that are put in place for the Australians. DFAT, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as health agencies, both the department and also the Australian Centre for Disease Control, the new CDC, have been coordinating discussions both for the whole of government and with state governments, but also having discussions with those six passengers from Australia and New Zealand, including a town hall that was held with those passengers last night.
 
Flights are still in the process of being finalised. This is a complex operation that often involves, is likely to involve a couple of different countries, and we’ll be in a position to provide further updates once those flights are finalised.
 
The five Australians are a resident in New South Wales, three of them, and two of them in Queensland, those two governments in particular have been thinking through potential arrangements for the return of those residents. And we've been having a number of discussions with them as well, obviously.
 
There have been a couple of discussions at the Health Protection Committee which is the committee of all of the jurisdictions' chief health officers, which is chaired by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer. One of those meetings happened on the weekend and another meeting has happened over the course of this afternoon.
 
Now, my very strong view and the view of our government is that quarantine and return arrangements should be the subject of a national decision, rather than separate state government decisions. I've had a long-standing view that quarantine, particularly for the entry of citizens returning or non-citizens into Australia, should always be governed by federal arrangements. It's a view that I expressed on a number of occasions during the recent pandemic.
 
The national coordination mechanism of the Federal Government, which includes the Foreign Affairs Department, Health and NEMA, have met this afternoon, as have the AHPC, and our government will be putting in national quarantine arrangements that are supported by the advice of those two bodies. This will require us to list the hantavirus as a listed human disease under the Biosecurity Act, which is an act that effectively replaced the old quarantine act that's been in place for about 120 years. An order will then be made. That listing will happen over the next 24 hours before the return of those Australians and that New Zealander, and an order will then be made for those passengers to be subject to quarantine arrangements at the Bullsbrook Centre for National Resilience, which is just northeast of Perth, next door to RAAF Base Pearce.
 
The flight that will be arranged by DFAT to repatriate those Australians and that New Zealander will be landed at RAAF Base Pearce, and those six people will be transferred immediately to that quarantine facility directly next door to the RAAF Base. People might recall this is one of the quarantine facilities, or the National Centres for National Resilience that were set up at the back end of the last pandemic. It is still there, it is able to operate. It is currently owned by the Commonwealth Government and will be operated in partnership with WA Health. Obviously, the Commonwealth has consulted with Western Australia, which was always going to be the first port of entry by this repatriation flight, and also with New South Wales and Queensland directly, given that the Australians are all residents of those two states. And the AHPC, the Health Protection Committee, has been consulted on those arrangements as well, as I said at a meeting this afternoon.
 
This period of three weeks quarantine will obviously only cover part of the 42-day quarantine period or potential incubation period that is understood to be relevant to this particular virus. As we move into that three-week period, we'll be seeking further advice from the chief health officers through the AHPC about what arrangements should take place beyond that initial three weeks.
 
I want to stress that our primary responsibility as a government, obviously, is to keep our community safe and healthy. We also have a responsibility to those passengers to bring them home and to protect them from any risk, no matter how small, of potentially transmitting the virus without knowing it, and these arrangements discharge both of those responsibilities. And that is why we've decided to take this precautionary approach to activate the Centre for National Resilience, which was set up precisely for this purpose to keep our community safe. And we'll be monitoring those arrangements over the coming couple of days. Happy to take questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Will there be continuous testing over those three weeks? What will the testing program look like? And will there be protections for the West Australians who are working at that RAAF Base, assisting with that transfer to the Bullsbrook facility?
 
BUTLER: There are very clear protocols for this, both for people in the flight in terms of their personal protection equipment or PPE. That will also obviously be put in place for anyone around the landing arrangements at RAAF Base Pearce. They will be the subject, again, of good public health advice and implemented through that national coordination mechanism. The National Centre for Resilience or that quarantine facility as you might call it in Perth, like the others around the country, is well established for precisely this purpose. I have absolute confidence that those arrangements will be put in place.
 
JOURNALIST: And then what will be the testing?
 
BUTLER: Sorry. Yes. There is a virus testing facility at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne that is able to do PCR or serology testing for this virus. No matter where we were going to place these people, whether they were, effectively, sent home into New South Wales or into Queensland, which was one possibility, or whether they're placed at least for a period of time at a national centre for resilience, they will be subject to testing and that testing can be effectively operationalised in Melbourne.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, could you explain the reasoning behind just having a three-week period at the beginning? I understand it may be extended, but if that is a 42-day incubation period, why has there been a decision to just limit it to three? And also, will staff at Bullsbrook be cycling through that period? Is there the possibility that they'll be leaving and returning to Perth or nearby towns?
 
BUTLER: We'll provide further details about the staffing arrangements as we continue to talk to our partner who will be staffing that. I mean there are other countries who are repatriating passengers from these cruise ships and quarantining them at a hospital or at a facility like this only for a matter of a few days, and then allowing them to return home subject to some arrangement or the other.
 
We've taken a precautionary approach here and put in place, at least initially, a three-week quarantine order at this centre. Obviously we will be monitoring advice about what should happen beyond those three weeks. There is an incubation period of 42 days potentially for this virus, but the risk of transmission obviously drops off after the first few weeks. We'll be seeking further advice from our Chief Health Officers.
 
But I do make no apology for the fact that this is one of the stronger responses you'll see around the world. Many other countries are putting in place quarantine orders at a centre like this or at a hospital only for two or three days rather than three weeks. A distinguishing factor for Australia though is that these passengers will have to come home on quite a long flight from Tenerife, unlike travelling just to the UK for example, probably in a relatively small plane with a higher risk of transmission during transit than would be the case travelling from Tenerife to the UK, for example.
 
JOURNALIST: And just on that, obviously you mentioned the flight crew needing PPE, things like that. Will they be subject to quarantine as well? And just further, are you able to confirm the ages of the Australians returning?
 
BUTLER: I'm not able to do that. We'll provide further updates as these arrangements are put in place. But obviously the crew will be subject to very high levels of protection and there will be advice given to them about any quarantine arrangements required or isolation requirements made after the trip.
 
JOURNALIST: Yeah Minister, the reporting to the COVID response found because of the heavy-handed actions of some governments that people will never lock down again like they did in COVID or the ability of governments to get people to do things. Is that something in the back of your mind as you ponder the response to this, should it go into something more serious that you can't expect the same level of cooperation from the public as you did during COVID?
 
BUTLER: They're two very different types of virus. All of the public health advice about this virus is that it is not a virus with pandemic potential. Transmission is very difficult human to human, but that does not mean that there is not a risk of transmission. And as you've seen, three deaths from eight cases, transmission of this virus can have very, very serious, including deadly consequences. I'm not really seeing these two things as analogous. A coronavirus-based pandemic is a very different beast to deal with than this risk. We're assessing this risk on its own merits and based on public health advice.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, if I could just quickly ask on the NDIS on the eve of the Budget.
 
BUTLER: Let me just deal with this and I'll come back to other questions.
 
JOURNALIST: Do any of the passengers have, any of the affected people have other things that would be concerning in this kind of delicate medical operation, including comorbidities?
 
BUTLER: I've not been advised of that. Obviously we're going to stay in close engagement with them. I've already said I think that we had our officials from Health and from DFAT had a town hall or Teams type meeting with them last night to try and make them as aware as we could be at the time of the potential options that were facing them. Obviously, they've been stuck on this ship for almost two weeks now with this hanging over them. This has obviously been a really terrible situation for all of them and my sympathy goes to them. There's no question of that. We want to do everything possible to make sure this is as comfortable a trip and quarantine period as is possible but at the end of the day as I said my primary responsibility is to keep the community safe.
 
JOURNALIST: Could you explain a little bit about the justification of taking on the New Zealander as well, whether there will be a cost-sharing arrangement with the New Zealand Government on that? And also you mentioned earlier that other countries are doing different, have very different quarantine policies.
 
BUTLER: Yeah.
 
JOURNALIST: How is the Australian Government monitoring those policies and then considering in terms of flights from those countries into Australia that tourism might take place on?
 
BUTLER: We're monitoring this closely obviously and there's a high level of very regular communication between our CDC and their equivalents around the world as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs. We monitor their arrangements and every country that I'm aware of that has passengers being repatriated is placing those passengers into some type of quarantine arrangement whether that's a monitored home-based quarantine or a hospital or centre-based quarantine. We're very confident that passengers will not be in a position where they're within the 42-day period travelling around the world and potentially entering Australia. We're just really dealing with the people we're repatriating because they're Australian citizens or a permanent resident.
 
As to the New Zealander, we have good brotherly, sisterly relations with our friends over the ditch. This is something Australian and New Zealand governments are talking about. Obviously to the extent that we can help out here with one flight and one quarantine arrangement, we'd be more than willing to do so. As to cost arrangements, that's something that we'll deal with in due course. The operation that we are putting in place, it's important to say, is funded by the Commonwealth. This is a national quarantine arrangement. As I said earlier, I've had a strong view for some time that the national government has primary for implementing quarantine arrangements for people who are coming into the country.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister, can I just confirm that do any of the passengers have any symptoms and what symptoms are they being told to look out for?
 
BUTLER: They're being, sorry, I should have said that, thank you for that question. There are no symptoms currently displayed by the six people who will be repatriated to Australia. Obviously they will be monitored including during transit by a medical professional and they are all, I think everyone on the cruise ship has been given very, very clear information about the symptoms that they should look out for. Some of them relatively sort of standard virus symptoms but there are some things particular to this disease, this particular virus that all passengers have been made very clear.
 
JOURNALIST: With the testing facility in Melbourne, does that mean that samples will be flown on a regular basis from Muswellbrook to Bullsbrook to Melbourne?
 
BUTLER: Yeah, that's right. Quite how regularly will be an operational matter that we'll look at but the only testing facility for this particular virus in Australia is in Melbourne. Wherever they would be, they would be returning those tests there.
 
JOURNALIST: How many people are part of this flight crew and how have they been selected? Have they volunteered for this? What’s the process?
 
BUTLER: This is all voluntary. People aren't a part of this without volunteering for it. The flight arrangements, though, are still being put in place and the number of crew will depend upon the size of the flight and things like that.
 
JOURNALIST: Just to follow that, is that the same for the health professionals who will be helping out in Perth or any assisting staff? Voluntary arrangement?
 
BUTLER: Yes.
 
JOURNALIST: WA Health staff?
 
BUTLER: WA Health staff will, their involvement will really depend upon the condition of these people, these passengers. The centre will be operated by contract through the Federal Government. We'll have more to say about that.
 
JOURNALIST: One more from me. Do you have a sense of the cost, a weekly cost, a three-weekly cost for this quarantine?
 
BUTLER: I will provide further details on that.
 
JOURNALIST: Just on the NDIS the contribution to Thriving Kids from New South Wales is a fair bit less than Victoria despite having a bigger population. We have heard Chris Minns talk in the past about how a bigger portion of those being moved off the NDIS would be in his own state. What would you say I suppose to concerns about that potentially lack of funding when you're looking at those two states comparatively and creating a system outside the NDIS?
 
BUTLER: If you're talking about the process more broadly than just Thriving Kids that I outlined at the Press Club, then I would firstly acknowledge this is a big change to the way in which disability supports happen in this country. It's a change that's much more aligned with the original vision of disability supports, that had an NDIS in place for people with permanent significant disability but other supports for people with less severe needs or less significant needs. We're really returning to that original intent, a second tier if you like and I think all governments have signed up to that. Now, obviously the devil will be in the detail of negotiations between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments as well as the disability community. I understand that those negotiations are going to be complex because this is a very, very big change. But all governments have signed on to the principle of this. They did it when they received the NDIS review back in 2023, the original National Cabinet decision back then in 23 as well, and earlier this year signing a number of agreements, including the agreement on foundational supports, which at the end of the day is the core decision here.
 
JOURNALIST: But the bilateral agreement does have those figures where New South Wales and the Commonwealth's contributions, a billion there but for Victoria it's $2 billion in those separate bilateral agreements when it comes to Thriving Kids. Why is it so different particularly when you're looking at population?
 
BUTLER: At the end of the day, New South Wales and Victoria have signed onto bilateral agreements that are consistent with the overall umbrella. If other states want to do a little bit extra, then that's up to them.
 
JOURNALIST: Sorry if you answered this question earlier. Could you just outline who the contractor is that will be running Bullsbrook?
 
BUTLER: We'll provide further details on that when we’ve, over the next little while. I just wanted to come out as soon as the AHPC had met, which is the chief health officers, over the last hour or so and give early indication about our direction of travel.
 
JOURNALIST: It's just a bit tangential to this. It's completely off topic to this. Do you think it passes muster with the public for a minister to have an official meeting at a birthday party on a Saturday night?
 
BUTLER: I'm here to talk about the hantavirus and my portfolio matters. Any questions on that? Thanks, everyone.