Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Adelaide Breakfast – 17 November 2025

SONYA FELDHOFF, HOST: It was back in July that we first heard that an organisation that South Australians hold extremely dear, Bedford, was in some very serious strife. They went into voluntary administration. Both the State Government and the Federal Government were involved in discussions at the time. Since then we've seen the State Government invest a fair whack of money into trying to keeping those operations alive and more recently the Federal Government to try to aid and assist in the sale of Bedford. Today, both the Premier and the Federal Health Minister will be standing up to talk about Bedford's future after a weekend of negotiations, knowing that midweek was pretty much the end of the timeline on the front of Bedford. Mark Butler is the Minister for Disability and the NDIS, good morning to you Minister.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Morning, Sonya.

FELDHOFF: Do you have some good news over those negotiations over the weekend regarding the future of Bedford?
 
BUTLER: Well, the Premier and I, in separate cars obviously, are heading to Panorama now to meet with Bedford staff and for the Premier to make an announcement that I know will be of enormous relief to hundreds of staff there , and to their families who know what a lifeline supported employment is to hundreds of South Australians. I want to pay particular credit to the Premier because both levels of government have worked really hard here, but I think without the Premier's personal energy and authority, I'm not sure we'd be where we are. A few months ago, things looked incredibly grim for this organisation. They'd got themselves into a very deep financial hole and it's taken months of careful but firm work by both governments to find a provider who's got the scale to take over a very, very big organisation. The announcement the Premier will make today, with me there, really secures the job of hundreds and hundreds of South Australians who live with a disability but get such an enormous sense of reward and dignity from the work that they do at Bedford.
 
RORY MCCLAREN, HOST: So Mark Butler, you are telling us right now a provider has been found to take over Bedford into the future?
 
BUTLER: That's right. A provider has been identified through a careful process over a period of months now. We've provided funds, the state has provided funds to allow that process to run its course with McGrathNicol overseeing it. Frankly, if we hadn't done that,  both the Premier and I feared that this would likely go into liquidation and really within a matter of days, hundreds of people with disability would have been thrown out of their work. We've had to take the time, we've had to have an expert look at this and to test the market because they are such a big provider of supportive employment here in South Australia. There really wasn't an obvious provider here in Adelaide ready to take on what is such a huge scale operation. It  has taken time, but I'm confident we've got to a position which will ensure that the Bedford name continues to provide extraordinary support and reward for hundreds of South Australians for many decades to come.
 
MCCLAREN: Mark Butler, we know that there was a prospect of voluntary administration which didn't quite play out back in July. Technically, is the organisation still going to have to go into voluntary administration as part of this sale process?
 
BUTLER: That's right. It will have to go into voluntary administration. That's the way the thing works. This deal is subject to support from creditors, which is part of the reason why the enormous energy the Premier has brought to this has been so important. He's been engaging personally with the head of the major bank involved, the National Australia Bank. Both governments are bringing resources to the administration process to give all of the creditors confidence that this is the right path forward, not just for those hundreds of South Australians, obviously, but for the organisation itself and for creditors. This is the best deal possible for everyone concerned. It's come at significant expense. The Commonwealth is putting more than $13 million on the table today to ensure the administration process goes smoothly and gets to the outcome that we have all decided is the best outcome. But it does have to go through that technical process. You're right, Rory.
 
FELDHOFF: Has the National Australia Bank come to this agreement or will some Federal or State money be going to the National Australia Bank?

BUTLER: That’s an administration process. McGrathNicol will be appointed as administrators this morning. The Premier has been engaging with the banks. I might leave that question to him to answer.
As I said, this has been a really important engagement from the Premier of our State with the head of one the biggest banks in Australia. It shows you the extent to which the Premier was willing to get involved personally and take leadership, frankly, back since July to ensure that we gave the best possible chance of this organisation surviving.
 
MCCLAREN: On that, Minister, we know there's around 1400 people who work with Bedford. Are all of their positions safe?
 
BUTLER: The deal that is on the table now will secure the jobs of all of the 840 or so people who are in supported employment. In addition to that, there are 500 employees who are not supported employees, but by and large, the existing operations will continue. We've been particularly focused on ensuring that supported employees have their jobs preserved, and we have arrived at a deal that does that.
 
In addition to that, there are several hundred employees who also support the work of Bedford and, as the Disability Minister, I can say there are some hundreds of people who receive services through the NDIS as well and we're making sure that they don't have an interruption to their service including supported accommodation support.
 
FELDHOFF: Since July we've seen some measures that involve short-term solutions. Is this a long-term solution that will secure the jobs of these 1400 workers?
 
BUTLER: This is a long-term solution. If it's supported by creditors, and I'm very confident it will be, we've done the groundwork to ensure that's the case, then this is a very reputable provider that we're familiar with. It's at a Commonwealth level that's got scale nationally. The same sort of community background that people understand Bedford as having, will come in and give this a long-term future. I'm very confident about that. We'll have more to say when we get to Panorama about who that provider is, but we've gone through a laborious process of testing the market. There were a number of organisations interested either in the whole of Bedford's operations or at least in part of it.
 
The fact that the Premier appointed McGrathNicol to do this in not a formal administration sense, but to be some eyes and ears for both Governments. He appointed Bruce Carter, who will be known to your listeners as a very expert board member, to ensure that as Governments we had eyes and ears on this and really understood the full detail of the position Bedford have got themselves into. We're now at a position where I'm very confident there's a long-term future under the Bedford name.
 
FELDHOFF: You're listening to 891 ABC Radio Adelaide. This is the Federal Minister for Disability and the NDIS, Mark Butler. We're talking about the future of Bedford here. Now, before the voluntary administration that happened, we were aware that the future of Bedford involved a Salisbury Advanced Manufacturing and Retail Hub. What is your understanding of its future? Is that part of the sale?
 
BUTLER: The decisions about those sorts of things will be made through the administration process. We've been focused on - and I know the Premier's been focused particularly on - the supported employment jobs, and we're confident that they will be preserved. There may be at the edges, some movement of some of those supported employees from one part of Bedford's operations to another, but we'll be talking about that over the course of this morning and through the administration process.
 
FELDHOFF: Before we let you go, Minister, obviously with these issues around Bedford, other providers have also raised issues along with Bedford about NDIS funding and the model around that. Has this spurred on any changes to that or any discussions or review of NDIS modelling and funding?
 
BUTLER: There are discussions going on, particularly with some of the large providers of more intense supportive accommodation services about the model. I did want to resist any idea that Bedford's troubles were connected to that. Bedford's position really was quite unique and reflected some unfortunate financial decisions the previous management and board had taken. What Bedford has gone through is not typical of what's happening in disability services. But I do recognise there is an issue for some of that very complex end of the accommodation part of NDIS that we're working through with those big providers.