Television interview with Minister Butler, ABC News Breakfast – 13 June 2025

JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: Alright, we’re going to get you some more federal politics news now because the Health Minister, Mark Butler, has joined us in the studio. Mark, good morning.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Good morning both of you.

GLENDAY: There’s a bit to get through. We want to ask you about your portfolio, but I think we probably need to start with AUKUS. Is the Trump Administration trying to wedge you, do you think, to increase defence spending by putting forward this review, what, a mere few days before the first meeting between Albanese and Donald Trump?
 
BUTLER: That’s not our view. Clearly there is a debate in the northern hemisphere and in the southern hemisphere about defence spending, and we’ll participate in that debate. But our view is it’s unremarkable that a new administration would conduct a review of a project this significant. We did it through our Defence Strategic Review when we came to government. The British Government has done it, and so it’s unsurprising the Americans are doing it as well. We’ve welcomed the review. We’ll cooperate fully with it, as we did the British review.
 
GLENDAY: It’s just that it’s being conducted by someone who has been very outspoken and sceptical about AUKUS and, to be fair, raised issues about the capacity of US shipbuilding, which has been a concern for some time.
 
BUTLER: Sure, and it’s a constant debate here. It’s a constant debate in the UK as well. We’ve got 120 Australians working in Pearl Harbour now, helping with the American capability on the Virginias, but also learning the skills they’ll need when they come back to the western suburbs of Adelaide, in my community, to build the AUKUS submarines. We know this project is in our interests, it's in America's interests, it's in the UK's interests, which is why we're so confident it will go ahead.
 
EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: Mark Butler, you're South Australian. You know how important submarine programs are in South Australia. Thousands of jobs, they're flow-on jobs as well. Are you saying, honestly, that people should not be worried at all about this?
 
BUTLER: I think this is an unremarkable decision by a new government. Of course there's a debate in America and the UK and here about the huge expansion of capability that's going to be needed to deliver this project. But we already have the training facilities being built, as you know, in the western suburbs of Adelaide. Schools are being prepared to churn out graduates who’ll be ready for these jobs as well. This is a very big project, the biggest defence project Australia has ever had, so it's going to be a challenge to deliver all of the infrastructure and the workforce needed to do it, it, but we're already getting on with that job. I really encourage my own community in the western suburbs of Adelaide not to be too concerned about this review. It is unremarkable. A new government would do it. We're going to cooperate fully with it, and we're confident the result of it will be the same as the result of our review and the British review, recognising it's in all of our interests we do this project.
 
GLENDAY: Alright. Let’s see now, we did invite you on, of course, to talk about health, because you are in fact the Health Minister. You're meeting with your state counterparts today. How does the nation restore trust in IVF after these bungles? We know that they're said to be very rare, but a lot of people who have gone through this process are thinking now, goodness, could this have happened to me?
 
BUTLER: Yeah, I know. I've been through this process. My third child is an IVF baby. The trust you place in these organisations, these companies, is just extraordinary. And they deliver 20,000 IVF babies every year now. This is a big part of society, and it delivers joy to thousands of families. But I know a lot of people are really worried now about the confidence in the system. We need to deal with some of the gaps in regulations, some of the lack of transparency that I think we now know is in this sector. We'll be having a discussion today with health ministers about what we can do to clean this place up, but also to re-inject some confidence into families that this is a way to bring some joy to your family in a way in which you can have confidence.
 
REBELLATO: I think a lot of people would have been pretty stunned to find out that there's not national regulation and oversight. So is that something that you'll be pushing for? Will we see some real outcomes out of this meeting?
 
BUTLER: I want to have a really good discussion about this. You're right, this is a sector that has traditionally been regulated by state governments. That's how IVF started, in state hospitals. But it is now overwhelmingly a private sector enterprise, largely funded by families themselves and private health insurance, along with Medicare and PBS funding from the Federal Government. There is clearly a case for national consistency at the very least, but I'll say to states, if there's a role that they think the Commonwealth can play, I'm open to that. I want to see families have utter confidence in what has traditionally been one of the safest, highest quality IVF systems on the planet. But clearly, something needs to be done here.
 
GLENDAY: You were talking about health insurance there – just through the election campaign and in the lead-up to it, you were quite strong about taking some sort of action insurers and their payments to private hospitals. Do you have a date for taking that action?
 
BUTLER: I said three months, and it's pretty close to three months ago that I said that, so I've made that clear to the insurers that time is ticking and I'll be -
 
GLENDAY: So, it’s impending?
 
BUTLER: I’ll be seeking some clear advice from my department about the most recent data. There’s some evidence that payments from insurers to hospitals – who, after all, deliver the care that people are expecting when they pay their private health insurance premiums. There’s some evidence of an uptick, but I’m not sure it’s enough, really, to underpin the viability that we need in our private hospital sector. I've been as clear as I possibly can with the insurers. If they don't come to the table and deliver a better deal for private hospitals, I will act.
 
GLENDAY: Okay. Finally, Minister, it's Men's Health Week. Happy Men's Health Week. I saw a lovely phone call between you and your colleague wishing each other a good night's sleep. It's been a bit of a focus for us on the program this week. The statistics around suicides, things like drowning, murders, they're all shocking. I mean, what's your message to Australian men?
 
BUTLER: Get the health checks you need. About half of Australian men think it's normal not to have one of your routine health checks. It's not. If there's something you feel is not right, don't just try to ignore it and think it'll go away. It probably won't, so go and get some help. And also, the third message I'd say is look after your mates. If you think there's something not quite right with them, give them a nudge. Whether it's physically or mentally, give them a nudge to go and get some help themselves.
 
REBELLATO: Do you find it hard to do that? You're in a pretty stressful job, long hours, you've got a family. It must be pretty hard to recognise when you need to take a break.
 
BUTLER: I'm an Australian man, I mean, it is very deeply rooted in us not to do those things I've just asked Australian men to do. That's why the numbers, frankly, are so shocking. But we've got to try and break down those cultural stereotypes. Australian men are terrible at looking after themselves, and we all have to get better.
 
REBELLATO: Yes, let's hope they start to do that now. Mark Butler, thanks for coming in the studio.
 
BUTLER: Thanks very much.