Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Radio National – 27 October 2025

SALLY SARA, HOST: Well, Federal Parliament returns today as the Government promises improvements to Medicare and reproductive health. Changes to kick in this Saturday will expand bulk billing incentives for doctors, while a new Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme listing promises better access to contraceptive options. Mark Butler is the Minister for Health and Ageing and 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: Thanks so much.
 
SARA: What are the changes for Australian women and their contraceptive options?
 
BUTLER: It really builds on changes we made earlier this year. We found that there had not been a new contraceptive pill added to the PBS for more than 30 years. It didn't mean there weren't new ones on the market, but hundreds of thousands of women were expected to pay top dollar because no one had bothered putting them on the PBS. We added three new pills, Yaz, Yasmin, Slinda, very widely used pills to the PBS earlier this year. And this week, we're adding NuvaRing, which is used by, we think, tens of thousands of women. That will cut the price by about two thirds.
 
And on Saturday as well, we'll slash the price for women who want to use long-acting contraceptives, IUDs or implants who currently pay three or four hundred dollars. They'll get that fully bulk billed from Saturday as well. From 1 January, when we cut prices again for medicines, we're very confident that Australia's women will have access to all of the contraceptive choices really that they need for no more than $100 a year. That will save hundreds of thousands of women many, many millions of dollars.
 
SARA: The Government is also funding free training for health practitioners in the insertion and removal of IUDs. How many have taken up this training so far?
 
BUTLER: This is only just starting now. What we find is that Australia has pretty much the lowest uptake of IUDs and implants in the developed world. And we think that that's partly because of cost, but also because it's hard to find a health professional who can do that. We're expanding training, we're slashing the cost. Ultimately, obviously, it's up to Australia's women what form of contraception they choose. Our job as government, we think, is to make as many choices available as possible, give women better access to those choices, particularly when they need a health professional, for example, around insertion, and to slash the costs. And I think our Women's Health Package ticks all three of those boxes.
 
SARA: From Saturday, the Government will allow GPs to receive bulk billing incentives for any patient. Currently, they're only eligible if they bulk bill a patient who is under 16 or a concession card holder. What proportion of GPs across the country do you expect will start bulk billing more patients? What's your expectation?
 
BUTLER: We've modelled this very carefully. We think that three quarters of general practices will be financially better off if they move to fully bulk billing, bulk bill everyone who comes through their door. That will take us over the course of the rest the decade to a bulk billing rate again of about 90 per cent or more. Now, already we have had hundreds and hundreds of practices tell us that this week they're charging a gap fee, next week they'll move to fully bulk billing. And those numbers are changing every single day.
 
We expect a really significant change in bulk billing practice from this week to next week. It will build over time. I think other general practices will realise, for example, that the GP down the road or around the corner has moved to fully bulk billing and they'll start to consider doing the same. But this is all about providing affordable healthcare to Australians, particularly those who don't have a concession card, who if you're not on a particularly good income, we've found from our research, are starting not to go to the doctor because of cost. I mean, that's obviously not good for their health. It's not good for the health system.
 
SARA: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast. My guest is the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler. A survey by ABC News and the Royal Australian College of GPs earlier this year indicated only a fraction of doctors believe they will be able to bulk bill more patients. What's your benchmark and timeframe to assess whether this policy will be operating on track?
 
BUTLER: We said at the election that we thought this policy would reach a 90 per cent bulk billing rate by the end of the decade, and that's a pretty conservative assessment. It will mean that doctors have some time and practice owners have some time to consider the financial impacts of the record investment that kicks in on Saturday. But as I said, we've obviously been in communication with general practices about this. Almost 1,000 practices as of Friday, 1,000 had said these are practices that currently charge a gap fee, that next week they'll move to a fully bulk billing model. And we're getting new practices every single day tell us that.
 
I know there was a bit of scepticism among some of the doctors groups about this but as I've been getting over the last several weeks around the community I've been going to practice after practice that have said they've crunched the numbers, they recognise that this is good for their patients obviously but it's also good for the individual doctors who work at the practice and it's good for the practice itself.
 
SARA: On another matter, the government has indicated it will introduce draft laws to overhaul Australia's environmental protections to Parliament this week. Are you confident that you'll find support either from the opposition or the Greens, given their criticisms of various parts of the proposal in recent days?
 
BUTLER: The Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has been working with both parties, the Coalition parties and also the Greens party. He's been meeting with their relevant spokespeople on this, had several meetings with both, and obviously meeting as well with industry, environmental stakeholders and state governments as well. He's been working very hard to get to a position where we can get these laws done before the end of the year. This has been hanging around for a long time now. Sussan Ley, when she was Opposition Leader, commissioned and then received a report when she was the Environment Minister five years ago from Graeme Samuel. And that's still the report that really forms the basis of the bill that we're going to bring to the Parliament.
 
The BCA, the Business Council, is in Canberra today telling Parliament to get this done. Ken Henry told us earlier this year this was perhaps the most important productivity measure the Parliament could take in the economy. It's time to get this done. We know there's going to be a debate, and we know that the Greens and the Coalition may put amendments to the Parliament, but really we've got to get this done this year.
 
SARA: Why reject the opposition's request to split the bill?
 
BUTLER: This is a last minute stunt, we think. There is not another group, as far as I'm aware, that Murray Watt has been engaging with who've said that they should split the bill. Graeme Samuel, when he delivered that report to Sussan Ley five years ago, made it clear that there are two objectives here. This has got to be good for the environment and it's got to be good for business and developers, not just sometimes the mining industry, which is seen as the sort of illustration of these, but we know new housing developments, renewable energy projects. The Business Council talks this morning about the need to get new health and aged care developments up as well. This is important for our whole economy and the whole of the bill needs to pass.
 
SARA: Just finally, on a separate issue, do you regard problem gambling as a health issue?
 
BUTLER: I think pretty much everything is a health issue. Planning the way in which we structure our cities, a whole range of things on social media developments, gambling. All of these have an impact on our mental health and often on our physical.
 
SARA: Should it be under your portfolio?
 
BUTLER: If we took that view, everything would be under my portfolio, frankly -
 
SARA: But I'm not asking you about everything. This particular issue?
 
BUTLER: Our physical health, our mental health. No, I don't think it should be. I think this is positioned quite rightly where it is in the Communications portfolio and I know the Communications Minister is working diligently on that.
 
SARA: Does the government and its policies look to reflect the attitudes of the community?
 
BUTLER: In relation to this issue particularly? Of course, we listen to attitudes in the community, community voices about every policy decision we take. We engage with stakeholders who've invested in particular industries, whether it's the ones we've talked about over the course of this interview or others. We are an open, transparent government that talks to community and stakeholders before we take policy decisions that ultimately we're confident are in the national interest. I know the Communications Minister will be doing that.
 
SARA: Repeated polls have said that people want action, particularly on problem gambling and online gambling. If you reflect community values, why not do something about it?
 
BUTLER: I think you'll find that our government has taken more action on problem gambling than any federal government before it. We've taken this issue very -
 
SARA: But none on the Peta Murphy review.
 
BUTLER: We've taken very, very seriously a range of recommendations, not just from that review, but from others as well. You will not find a federal government in our history that's done more on problem gambling than this one.
 
SARA: Mark Butler, thank you so much for coming in this morning.
 
BUTLER: Thanks, Sally.
 
SARA: Mark Butler is the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing.