Television interview with Minister Butler, ABC News Breakfast – 7 August 2025

EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: It's time now to talk federal politics and Health Minister Mark Butler joins us in the studio. Good to have you on the show.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Nice to be back.
 
REBELLATO: Tell us why you're in Melbourne, because this is regarding Urgent Care Clinics, isn't it?
 
BUTLER: That's right. We're opening the first three of the 50 Urgent Care Clinics we promised at the last election. They're a big part of our Strengthening Medicare agenda with more bulk billing, and more doctors. We introduced laws last week to make medicines even cheaper. It's really about delivering on the promises we made to the people at the election.
 
REBELLATO: When it comes to going to see a GP, there's been a lot of talk in the past couple of weeks, especially about artificial intelligence and AI and 7.30 did a story last night about more GPs using it and concerns about privacy. Would you feel comfortable going to a GP and them taking notes through AI?
 
BUTLER: I think it is the future. I think AI is going to do a lot of the back-of-house work in health and in many other sectors of the economy but what we're grappling with now is making sure that it's done in a safe way. The digitisation of health, which still uses a lot of paper, still uses a lot of fax machines, has a great deal of potential to make the system more effective, more efficient, but also to ensure that patients are able to access all of their own health information. There is great potential there. I know it's being used already, but we do have to be very careful about what happens to the data and the information.
 
JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: We just had ACOSS on the show, Cassandra Goldie. The other day we had the ACTU on the show. Both of them are calling for your government to wind back tax breaks for property investors to try to get more young people into the market. Is that something you might look at some point this term?
 
BUTLER: I think we've made clear what our tax policies are. They're about cutting taxes for every single worker in Australia, no matter what their income. I know there will be a lot of ideas floated between now and the economic round table the week after next, but we're pretty clear on our tax plans.
 
GLENDAY: So negative gearing, capital gains tax, you're not going to touch them this term of government? Not even going to float the idea of maybe down the track?
 
BUTLER: We're very clear what our tax plans are. I know that there'll be a lot of commentary, a lot of ideas floated by business, by the social services sector and by unions, but that's for a discussion the week after next.
 
REBELLATO: Okay. Minister, another story that is being talked about today is Medicines Australia. They're saying it's just taking way too long once drugs are approved to go on the PBS. Why is it taking so long? Why can't this be shorter?
 
BUTLER: I'm expecting a report this week or next week on ways in which we can implement a series of recommendations to make our medicines approval system quicker. We're getting an enormous number of new medicines come onto the market. This is happening around the world. We're living through this turbocharged period of discovery that's bringing more and more new medicines. So, making sure we can assess them and approve them very quickly to get them into patients as quickly as possible is something I've said is a real priority for us this term.
 
The medicines industry, understandably, given their interest, want to make prices higher as well. So there will be a bit of a debate about how we do that, but I'm very much on the page of getting medicines more quickly into our system, our PBS system. It's a terrific system and we're trying to make medicines cheaper at the same time for Australians.
 
REBELLATO: We had a report that was out last year, so almost a year ago to say how we can change things and make this wait time shorter. So, how much longer is it going to take before we do see reform and we do see real change?
 
BUTLER: As I think the former chair of the medicines approval body said, this is a really complex report. I’ve asked an implementation group, which includes two reps from Medicines Australia, and some patient groups as well, to work through the 50 very complex recommendations and give me a report about how we implement them in a sensible, sequenced way. As I said, I expect that interim report this week or next week, and a final report in the coming months.
 
I know this is a real priority, obviously for the industry, but perhaps more importantly for patient groups. They see these new therapies coming onto the market around the world. They want them here in Australia, and that has been really the magic of our PBS system, giving Australians access to the best medicines available anywhere in the world at affordable prices. I want to make sure that continues.
 
GLENDAY: If you go to a light industrial zone around Melbourne – not sure how long you’re here – I reckon there’s a good chance you’ll find some very, very cheap, probably illegal cigarettes. Given that you’ve restricted vapes, obviously the taxes on legal cigarettes are so high, are you worried that we might see smoking rates go up again in the next few years just given how many of these illegal cigarettes seem to be in Australia at the moment?
 
BUTLER: Look, it’s probably now the biggest thread to our tobacco control efforts. I think retailers think that they’re doing something relatively harmless, but they’re not. They’re really making a big dent in our public health efforts to combat smoking. But more importantly, they’re essentially bank rolling the work of organised crime to do some really bad stuff like drug trafficking, sex trafficking, areas that create very real victims. So, I think all governments are resolved to do what we can to stamp this out. But largely, that requires state governments to lift their enforcement activity.
 
We’re seeing states like South Australia which are leading the way, really, here. The ability of the government to shut down stores without having to go to court, just to shut down stores if they’re doing the wrong thing. New South Wales is following that lead. I’d like to see other states do that as well. This is a very serious threat, not just to public health but to law and order.
 
REBELLATO: Minister Mark Butler, thanks for coming on the show. Appreciate it.
 
BUTLER: Thanks very much.