Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Radio National – 21 July 2025

SALLY SARA, HOST: Well, it’s been a procession of parliamentarians returning to Canberra ahead of the first sitting week for the new Parliament. Parliament returns tomorrow. Among them returning to the brisk winter weather of Canberra is the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, who joins me now in our Parliament House studio. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thank you, Sally.
 
SARA: Government priorities for this new Parliament, Parliament is about to sit for the first time since Labor's big win. What will be different in this term of Parliament compared to the last term?
 
BUTLER: There will be a different makeup of the Parliament, but we’ll be focused again as a re-elected government on delivering on the commitments we made. The Prime Minister's just reminded all of us, whether it's the newest backbencher or relatively senior ministers like myself, time now is for delivery. Delivery on the promises and the commitments we made to the Australian people, particularly through April and May. Given that we made more promises in my portfolio area of Health and Ageing and Disabilities than any other area, I'm very much seized of that responsibility. It's all about delivery.
 
SARA: It's about getting it done in this term?
 
BUTLER: It's about getting it done. It's about repaying the confidence that the Australian people gave to the Labor Party and re-electing us with an increased majority. Our job now is to deliver on those promises we made, and they're so significant in the area of policies that I have responsibility for. We've already been doing that as Ministers over the last several weeks, but now the Parliament is back together, as you say, in very brisk conditions. I'm not sure some of the new members of Parliament realised they were coming to work in a city that was - 6C yesterday morning, but still they're enormously privileged, and I think we all have the weight of that responsibility on our shoulders.
 
SARA: Let's have a look at some of the specific issues. The Government has flagged cutting HECS debts and childcare reforms, but how are negotiations on tax concessions for super balances over $3 million? How's that negotiation process going?
 
BUTLER: The Treasurer has addressed this quite a bit over the last several weeks. That's something that he has been trying to work with the Opposition on for at least two years, with them really appearing to learn nothing from the verdict on their oppositionist sort of relentlessly negative approach to politics over the last three years. They don't appear to be willing to negotiate on this matter at all. But the Treasurer continues to work with others in the Parliament.
 
But as you say, this week's legislative agenda is very much focused on three areas: on delivering on the commitment we made to cut student debt by 20 per cent, an average of $5,500 off the debt of many Australians, millions of Australians who have that student debt; on increasing childcare safety, safety, particularly in the shake of the absolutely shocking reports we've seen over the last couple of weeks; and also protecting penalty rates and overtime income for Australian workers to make sure that they're not duded on some of the deals that might be made under existing laws.
 
SARA: We have an Aged Care Minister. Would it be worth having a childcare minister?
 
BUTLER: We do have a Minister for Early Childhood and Education and Care. That's Senator Jess Walsh. She has a long background in this area. She's working -
 
SARA: For children more generally.
 
BUTLER: Oh, a minister for children? I know that's been canvassed. We have a Minister for Youth. Very much all of us think about the place of children in all of our portfolio areas. I can tell you, as the Health and the Disability Minister in particular, this is a constant focus of my attention and my colleagues.
 
SARA: The Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, has really been pushing on this specific portfolio of a minister for children. Would it be considered?
 
BUTLER: It's not a matter for me. I don't think it's something we have a current plan to do. But of course, as we think about all of the challenges for our kids and for parents who want to raise thriving kids, we see as Parliament a real focus on making sure that right across portfolio areas, the wellbeing of our children is a foremost priority.
 
SARA: The Greens have the balance of power in the Senate. They want dental care to be a top priority. Millions of Australians forego appointments. Is the current system good enough, in your view?
 
BUTLER: I said before the election that I understood there's a high level of ambition among many Australians, many Australian MPs, including some of my colleagues, to bring dental into Medicare coverage over time. It's a platform commitment we've made as the Labor Party in the long term. But I also said earlier in this interview that our focus right now is on delivering on the commitments and promises we made at the last election. It is clear there are highly variable waiting times across the country between states and territories. I am working with my state and territory colleagues on getting better arrangements in place for the public dental program. You see waiting times of some months in states like WA and South Australia that blow out to really quite significant periods of time in some other states. I do want to see state and territory governments look at ways in which they can get their wait times down to some of those better practice arrangements we see in some, and it’s something we should work through cooperatively.
 
SARA: If we're looking at the issue of tariffs and pharmaceuticals and the PBS, have you had any clarity on what's happening on that front with the US? And if Australia is not putting the PBS on the table, is the Federal Government looking at ways to support pharmaceutical companies if the Trump Administration goes ahead with tariffs?
 
BUTLER: We are having a little difficulty in understanding the nature and the timing of the plans that the US Administration has. Last week, they changed a little bit, even between a couple of interviews I'd given only three hours apart. We are still trying to understand particularly the precise timing the US Administration has in place. They had originally said it might be 12 or 24 months out, then the President said at some point last week it might be as early as the end of this month. We're doing all we can to understand that.
 
I make the point again, this is really just not going to be in the interest of American patients. They'll end up at the end of the day paying more for the blood and plasma products in particular that constitute the vast bulk of the exports we send from Australia to the United States. But the Prime Minister, again, has reaffirmed a core principle for the Labor Party, and that is we won't be negotiating about our PBS. We know that the Big Pharma industry in the US is lobbying that government or that administration very hard to try and reduce the schemes that Australia and other countries, for that matter, have, where we're able to negotiate good prices for medicines on behalf of the people we represent. Now, it's no surprise that Big Pharma want higher prices, because that means bigger profits. But our position is absolutely rock solid. We will not be negotiating around that.
 
SARA: Just finally, on the algal bloom in South Australia. As a Minister from SA, and your electorate takes up some of the coast as well, how important is it for the Prime Minister to understand the scale of this disaster at the moment?
 
BUTLER: It's important for all of us to understand it. You're right, my electorate spans a lot of Adelaide's beaches. I've been walking on those beaches for decades, and I've said over the course of the last week, only the weekend before last I was taking a walk and I saw a dead shark, a number of dead rays, dead fish, dead cuttlefish – scenes I'd never seen in all of my decades walking along Adelaide beaches. This is a deeply, deeply concerning and distressing situation, but it's also quite a new situation, not just for South Australia but for the country. We've never seen a bloom quite like this of this algal type; Karenia mikimotoi.
 
SARA: Will there be Commonwealth help?
 
BUTLER: We stand willing to give careful consideration to some of the requests the South Australian Government made to us last week. The Minister, the Environment Minister, Murray Watt, is heading to Adelaide later today. We had the head of our Oceans Division of the Environment Department out on a boat with South Australian officials last week in the gulf and in the Southern Ocean to monitor and really try to understand what is the first algal bloom of its type. When you're talking about the scale and duration of the thing we're facing there, it's deeply, deeply serious.
 
SARA: Mark Butler, good to have you back in the studio. Thank you.
 
BUTLER: Thanks, Sally.