Press conference with Minister Butler, Parliament House – 27 October 2025

REBECCA WHITE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR WOMEN: I’m really thrilled to be joining you all. I’m Rebecca White, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care and Assistant Minister for Women. I'm really thrilled to be standing with so many of Labor's women in this federal caucus. It's in large part because of the representation of women in the Labor Party and being in Government that we've been able to make significant changes for women in Australia. I'm really proud that our Government has made investments in our women's health package that has seen the listing of more contraceptives. In some cases, we are seeing women have access to choice and affordability for the first time in their lives. For more than 30 years, there were no new listings on the PBS of medicines like contraceptives and in large part that's just because women have been neglected in our health system. It took the Labor Government to change that.
 
I'm really proud that on 1 November this year we're going to see more changes and improvements for women's choice and access and affordability when it comes to their healthcare. On 1 November, which is just this Saturday, NuvaRing is going to be listed on the PBS another contraceptive choice for here in Australia.
 
Since the start of this year, we've seen nearly 500,000 women benefit from cheaper medicines because of Labor's commitment to invest in women's health. Nearly 500,000 women have benefited from the listing of new contraceptives, endometriosis medicines and menopause medicines, filling about 1.2 million scripts. This is saving women here in Australia money every week as they go and access the medicines they need. Across the country, women have saved about $41 million since the start of this year because of Labor's commitment to make sure they've got choice to affordable healthcare.
 
And on 1 November, which is again just this Saturday, we're also going to make it easier for them to access IUDs and implants. Making sure they've got access to long-acting reversible contraceptives, making sure they've got choice when it comes to birth control, and making sure they can do that affordably. This will save on average women about $400, making sure they can access choice when it comes to their reproductive health needs.
 
I'm really thrilled to be joined by Daile Kelleher, who is the CEO of Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia. She's going to speak about what this means for the women that she sees in her clinics right around the country and I'm really proud that we've been able to deliver this for Australian women as a Labor Government.
 
DAILE KELLEHER, CEO, SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AUSTRALIA: At Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia we're so excited to see more contraceptives on the PBS. It's really important that women have choice to the best contraceptive method for them. Contraception is not a luxury item, it should be something that you can have a chat with your GP about and choose the best option for your life, taking into consideration all of your options. As of 1 November, not only will NuvaRing be on the PBS as well, as we've seen earlier this year, a lot of other contraceptive methods on the PBS. This is game changing for people. They'll be able to make the best choice based on their life and making sure that contraception is not something that they have to choose between other items in their life.
 
We also know that long-acting reversible contraception appointments are going to be longer. MBS item numbers are going to be longer as of 1 November, that people will be able to have a chat with their GP and make sure that they can have all of the contraceptive options available to them and make the best choice. Contraception is not a luxury item, and no one should have to choose between contraception and anything else in their life.
 
DR MARTINA MENDE, OBSTETRICIAN: As a clinician in sexual and reproductive health we have long advocated to changes to Medicare and better access to contraception. As a clinician, I've heard many stories of women who can't access appropriate contraception because of costs and other barriers, and we are so pleased that now we can offer more choice with less barriers including cost to find the best fit for our patients because we believe that contraception is a basic healthcare right and should be accessible and equitable to all Australian women.
 
WHITE: We’ll take any questions on this.
 
JOURNALIST: A lot of money has been put forward to endometriosis. Is the Government looking at providing more money for polycystic ovary syndrome to help understand the condition better and to treat women?
 
WHITE: We've invested in our pelvic pain clinics, and we have 22 across the country and we're expanding that to create 33. At these clinics, women can present for a range of issues they may have, including things like PCOS, endometriosis and soon, menopause and perimenopause. We're making sure that women have a point of contact where they can get safe and effective care with clinicians who are knowledgeable about the concerns that they have. It's also why we're investing in supporting the upskilling of general practitioners to make sure that they, along with nurse practitioners, can provide appropriate care to women for their sexual and reproductive health needs.
 
JOURNALIST: The Palestinian Authority has called for Australia to send peacekeepers to Gaza. Is the Government considering this?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: The government has said, of course, that any reasonable request would be considered by the government in the usual way. I've seen reports of this in the press this morning, but of course we would take a considered approach to any of these issues. We've already sent one official from the ADF from the Australian Defence Force, to be part of the coordinating group that the US has set up in the Middle East to stabilise the situation in Gaza. We’ll take any request and consider it carefully in the usual way.
 
JOURNALIST: Minister Butler, you said on radio this morning about the bulk billing incentives that hundreds and hundreds of GPs were signing up for that. What is the number ahead of Saturday and is that number what you expected for 1 November when it starts?
 
BUTLER: Thanks for that. I said hundreds of practices. Hundreds of practices, we think about 900 practices as of Friday have already indicated to government that this week they're charging gap fees and next week they will be a fully bulk billing practice. Every GP in their practice will bulk bill every single patient that comes through their door. Now, we expect that number to increase over the course of this week and that understates a whole lot of practices that I'm sure will be taking the decision to do this but just haven't informed the Government yet. We're very confident there's going to be a big expansion of bulk billing between this week and next week as a result of the record investment that we've made. It's all part of our broader strengthening Medicare agenda.
 
This is part of it, the measures that Rebecca White has talked that make sure that women have access to the widest possible range of contraception from next year at no more than $100 a year. More bulk billing, more Urgent Care Clinics, cheaper medicines, that's our agenda for strengthening Medicare.
 
JOURNALIST: How are you collating that data? How are they informing Government and what number is successful to you?
 
BUTLER: We’ve sent communication to every general practice in the country, setting out what the record investment we're making will mean for their practice. They're going through those numbers, obviously making their own assessment about whether the practice will be better off and whether general practitioners, the GPs that work in their practice will be better off. Already a couple of thousand of them have indicated that they're going to do that.
 
Now, a number of them are already bulk billing practices but as I say, almost a thousand of them are practices that this week are charging gap fees, but they've indicated next week they'll be fully bulk billing. I expect there to be a significant number of practices that make that same communication to us over the course of this week before Saturday as well.
 
I make the point that this investment is obviously good for patients, and that's the primary focus of a government like the Labor Government. But it is also good for practices and good for GPs themselves. Two years ago, a full-time, fully bulk-billing GP would have been earning about $280,000 a year after they paid their practice costs. From this weekend, they'll be earning $405,000 a year, a $125,000 increase. This investment is obviously good for the Medicare system, good for patients, but it's also good for GPs themselves.
 
JOURNALIST: Have you got any indication as to why practices aren't transitioning?
 
BUTLER: I think practices particularly busy, smaller practices run by GPs are still crunching their numbers. We took a pretty conservative approach to our modelling on this. We said that we wanted to get to 90 per cent bulk billing by the end of this decade. I think there will be a first wave of practices that have crunched the numbers, worked out it's much better for them and their doctors to do this, as well as obviously better for their patients. Then I think general practices will start to see that the practice down the road or around the corner has moved to fully bulk billing, and they take that more seriously themselves. This will take some time to build but I'm really delighted at the first indication of support we've got from the general practice community.
 
JOURNALIST: You've spoken about the importance of a woman's right to choose when it comes to their reproductive health but abortion access in Australia has been described as a postcode lottery. Is the Federal Government considering stepping in to help ensure people have access to abortion or protect the right to abortion in federal law?
 
BUTLER: As you know, there was a very significant Senate report that highlighted a range of these challenges of access and affordability for Australia's women last term. We had a very serious discussion with state and territory health ministers that have responsibility for the vast bulk of surgical terminations and I know that as that discussion has continued, governments like for example the New South Wales Government and their Minister for Health have intervened to make sure there is broader access to surgical termination.
 
Our job, as a federal government, is to expand access to medical terminations, particularly through the MS2 step process, and we've been doing that very significantly, particularly under the leadership of Ged Kearney during the term of the last parliament, and you'll see many more GPs, many more pharmacists participating in that area of access to termination. I'm not sure whether anyone else would add to that.
 
SENATOR DR MICHELLE ANANDA-RAJAH: I’m happy to step in, Mark. Women getting access to long-acting reversible contraception like the Mirena and the IUDs means that they're getting access to better contraception. It's more effective. And that just means that they will have a lower risk of having breakthrough pregnancy. And that in turn means less of a need for either a medical abortion or a surgical termination pregnancy.
 
JOURNALIST: What steps are being taken to help bolster access to services for women in regional and remote areas? Women in Alice Springs last week shared with the ABC that they were having to travel interstate just to get an IUD inserted or removed. How will these services support them as well?
 
BUTLER: Again, I'll see whether anyone else wants to add to this. As Rebecca said, our focus on women's health has been greater choice, most importantly, but also better access and lower costs. We know that one of the reasons why Australia has one of the lowest uptakes of long-acting reversible contraception like IUDs or implants is not just cost but also access. Not enough health professionals are trained in the delivery of those services. Part of the package that Rebecca is talking about today is not just driving down the costs of those services under Medicare, but also increasing the pool of healthcare professionals who are trained to deliver it. That includes in regional Australia as well.
 
KELLEHER: Sexual and Reproductive Health Australia has actually been funded by the Federal Government to increase our LARC trainers across Australia with a focus on rural and regional trainees. We're actually delivering over 1,200 new trainees across Australia from now until 2027. We'll see more health practitioners who are trained in long-acting reversible contraception such as IUDs and Implanons over the next couple of years. Our clinicians are actually travelling out to regional and rural Australia to make sure that those barriers to access that people experience in regional Australia are lessened and to make sure that we have those trained professionals who are available and ready to fit and remove long-acting reversible contraception. We're really excited about that initiative it's really important to make sure that there is a focus on rural and regional Australia and that we do have more healthcare professionals who are able to do long-acting reversible contraception.
 
JOURNALIST: Just regarding environmental laws, why have you described splitting the bill by the Coalition as a stunt? I mean, is the door open to passing approvals with the Coalition and environmental protections with the Greens, perhaps an easier pathway for you?
 
BUTLER: Look, that's not our approach. I made the point this morning that, as far as I'm aware, no stakeholder has suggested we split the bill. The Business Council is here again this week pressing the Parliament to pass this legislation. They've said how important it is for investment and development, not just in the resources industry, but for new housing developments, for renewable energy projects.
 
The Business Council has talked this morning about the importance of development in health and aged care as well being held back by this red tape. And environmental stakeholders will tell you that the current laws just aren't working for the environment. No one else in this very wide-ranging debate, this very wide-ranging consultation that Murray Watt has been running has suggested we split the bill. It just looks like desperation and a stunt. At the end of the day, Sussan Ley when she was Environment Minister, received the report that is the foundation of this work five years ago. Do you seriously think she hasn't made up her mind about how the Coalition should vote? It is time to get this done over the course of the coming weeks.
 
JOURNALIST: Just one more. Delayed diagnosis is a real problem. Do you have any plans to mitigate this for some conditions like endometriosis that can take over a decade to receive a diagnosis?
 
BUTLER: Rebecca talked about the pelvic pain clinics that we've invested in. We invested in a range of them over the course of the last term. We'll increase that number over the course of this term of Parliament because we know that it just takes far too long for a woman to receive a diagnosis of endometriosis, years and years on average. And then, as Rebecca said as well, there haven't been the medicines we've needed on the PBS until we listed them over the last 12 months.
 
There are two jobs really of these endometriosis clinics that we're opening. First job obviously is to provide services to patients coming through their doors themselves, but we also want those clinics to lift the capability and the understanding of GPs more broadly in their region, to be able to spot the symptoms, not to tell young women and teenage girls that this is just part of growing up and going through puberty. We're doing a lot of work on lifting the capability of the workforce broadly, improving the endometriosis management guidelines and making sure that that women get a fair shake from our Medicare system.
 
JOURNALIST: Anthony Albanese didn’t raise the pharmaceutical tariffs with Donald Trump when he was in the White House. Are you concerned that Australia and particularly the PBS could be impacted by the US’s trade agenda?
 
BUTLER: I want to say first of all that our government will defend the PBS. We'll make sure that it continues provide the affordable, broad access to the world's best medicines that we've been talking about this morning. As you know, we've been working very hard at engaging with the US Administration about the announcements that the administration has made about the pharmaceutical industry. It's not just tariffs, which are one thing, but it's also their most favoured nation announcements about medicine prices in the US that are going to impact every other country, every other market on the planet.
 
We're working very closely with the pharmaceutical industry, both the local leadership, but I've talked to many in the global leadership as well. Ambassador Rudd is meeting very regularly with the administration to understand what the administration intends in this area. But people should be very clear, we will utterly defend the PBS. It's not on the negotiating table. And if there are impacts on global pricing for medicines generally that flow from the administration's announcement, we're going to make sure Australians' patients are protected from that. Thanks, everyone.