Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Radio National - 30 May 2025

SALLY SARA, HOST: Well, let's talk health now, and Mark Butler is the Health Minister as well as the new Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and joins me now. Mark Butler, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Morning, Sally.
 
SARA: We'll talk in a moment about the increasing cases of bowel cancer for Australians under the age of 50. But if we begin with COVID, as we've been hearing Luke updating us in the news, we're seeing reports of COVID cases increasing with a new variant. What do we know?
 
BUTLER: This is, as your introduction said, another member of the big, sprawling Omicron family. This is pretty consistent with patterns we've seen now for a few years, where a new sub-variant of Omicron emerges and starts to spread across the world. I've not got any advice that this should be dealt with any differently to previous sub-variants. I do encourage, particularly as we head into winter, for people to think about the last time they got the COVID vaccine. If you are over 75, you should have one if it's more than six months since you had your last booster. If you're 65 to 74, if it's more than 12 months and for everyone else, have a serious think. I've just got my booster over the last couple of weeks, and I think that puts me in a good position over winter, and other Australians should make sure that they equip themselves similarly.
 
SARA: So people under 65, they're eligible as well if they haven't had one for a while?
 
BUTLER: That's right. They're eligible. It's not a strict recommendation from the experts, unlike older Australians who are strongly encouraged and recommended to get that booster. But certainly, everyone else is eligible for a free COVID booster if they've not had one in the last 12 months at their local pharmacy or GP.
 
SARA: Let's go back to the issue of bowel cancer. As you're aware, rates of bowel cancer among younger Australians, they're the highest rates in the world at the moment. We've been talking to scientists during the week and they're saying that they're not entirely sure why this is happening. What's the Health Department's approach to this when we're still trying to figure out what's going on?
 
BUTLER: This is a really disturbing puzzle across the world. You're right, a recent international paper showed that Australia had the highest rates of bowel cancer among young people, which are generally seen as under 50 year olds. It's important to say that still about 90 per cent of bowel cancer cases are seen in Australians over the age of 50, but those rates are coming down, pleasingly. They've been reducing by about 25 per cent over the last 25 years for people over the age of 50. But at the same time, bowel cancer rates for people under 50 have, frankly, increased really sharply. For 30 to 40 year olds for example, they've increased by a whopping 175 per cent. Of low rate, but this is still a really concerning trend we're seeing, and we’re seeing it across the world and it is puzzling researchers. But we think lifestyle and diet have probably got a lot to do with this.
 
There's a lot of research going into bacteria that are in the gut. Cancer Australia, which is part of my portfolio, oversees cancer policy in Australia, is undertaking a review and doing some work to try to better understand what is happening here and what a response might be.
 
SARA: We received a text message yesterday when we were talking about this issue, Minister, and this is the message we received: “My 35 year old daughter was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in August last year, and passed away in February after many visits to a GP with back pain. Stronger and stronger painkillers were diagnosed as well as antidepressants, and tiredness was put down to having a young child. Took a visit to another GP to reach a cancer diagnosis.” What does that signal to you? Could some doctors be prematurely ruling out bowel cancer for younger patients?
 
BUTLER: There is this challenge that bowel cancer has historically been seen as a condition for older people, people over the age of 50. GPs and other health professionals need to review some of those old assumptions. We've got campaigns from some of the bowel cancer groups really encouraging GPs to think carefully about this. But most importantly as well, urging young Australians themselves to trust their own instincts about what's happening with their body. If they are noticing blood in their stool or unusual bowel habits, they should be quite assertive with their GP and say: ‘Look, something's wrong here. I need help to work out what it is.’
 
SARA: Let's look at the issue of Healthscope. The other major health story this week is, of course, the collapse of Healthscope, their private hospital network. Given that you've ruled out a taxpayer bailout for Healthscope, are you willing to see some of these hospitals, possibly close rather than hand over the money?
 
BUTLER: We're not going to bail out an overseas private equity firm who made a play to make a profit out of the second biggest private hospital operator and has seen it all really come undone. We're not going to do that. I don't think there'd be many taxpayers who would urge me to do that. What we have done, though, is to engage very closely with the owner and also now with the receivers, who were appointed at the beginning of this week, to ensure as far as possible we can see an orderly transfer and sale of these important assets to a more stable operator, frankly. We've got several months. The company tells me they've got 12 months of funding and forbearance on their loans to continue operations as usual. If you've got a birth planned or a procedure booked at one of these hospitals, if you're one of the 19,000 hardworking staff, it's business as usual while this process plays out. It will take weeks and months for the receivers to work through a substantial number of expressions of interest that are already there to take over what is a really important part of our healthcare system.
 
SARA: An ABC report out today says the Murdoch Children's Research Institute is calling for authorities to urgently consider whether the first measles vaccine should be recommended at four months of age in Australia instead of 12, after data from its researchers suggested protective maternal antibodies wane before children become eligible for a vaccination, which creates a gap in immunity. Is an update to the vaccine schedule on the cards? Is it something you're considering?
 
BUTLER: First of all, can I take the opportunity to encourage parents to make sure their babies are vaccinated for measles. This is, in rare cases, a very serious condition for babies, and can be even fatal. Our vaccination rate has dropped below that key 95 per cent target, which is what you need for herd immunity in the community. We're seeing this across the world in the post-COVID period, so I do really encourage parents to do that. It's an important protection. It's a part of keeping your baby safe.
 
But you're right also to say there's this incredibly interesting research emerging that maybe 12 and 18 months is not the right age for babies to be vaccinated, largely because of the changing nature of the vaccination status of their parents. As your intro said, I think most parents haven't had measles nowadays because they themselves were vaccinated. And that's impacting the type of antibody or the strength of antibody that is transferred through the placenta from the mother to the baby. Our technical advisory group on immunisation, people will remember this group from COVID, ATAGI, is currently reviewing the measles vaccine program both in terms of doses, but also timing. I know this research will be an important input into that review.
 
SARA: Just finally, you, in addition to Health, you're the new Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and you have the task of ensuring that it's sustainable in the future. Will the foundational supports promised by the states, will they be in place by 1 July as promised, which is only around four weeks away now?
 
BUTLER: We struck an agreement with states and territories just over the course of summer between the Prime Minister and the Premiers, that reinforced that there are a number of negotiations underway between jurisdictions. There's a new hospitals funding agreement, the reform to the NDIS rules, and as you say, a system of foundational supports as recommended by the NDIS review. They're all connected. It's a job. Lot of negotiations, and after giving one year's funding, a very substantial increase in funding to hospitals for the financial year 2025-26, we said to the states we want all of those negotiations wrapped up by the end of this year, and we'll be working to that.
 
SARA: So, will these foundational supports promised by the states, will they be in place by 1 July?
 
BUTLER: We haven't finalised that negotiation, and we're going to do that as soon as we can over the course of the rest of this year.
 
SARA: But that deadline's only four weeks away, so it sounds like that's going to be extended, is it?
 
BUTLER: I've never said that there was going to be a brand new system in place by 1 July. We have to continue those negotiations. Obviously, they were interrupted by the election, by the election in Western Australia as well, when the Western Australians went into caretaker. But we're working to ensure that we can wrap those negotiations up before the end of this year.
 
SARA: Mark Butler, thank you so much for your time this morning on Breakfast.
 
BUTLER: Thanks, Sally.