Television interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 12 September 2025

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST: Sussan Ley has rejected suggestions that her leadership is under threat, defending against criticism of her handling of a week-long saga that started with Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price suggesting that the government was favouring Indian migrants to boost votes and ended with the Senators sacking from the Coalition frontbench. Ms Ley finally apologised to for Senator Price's remarks yesterday, eight days after they were first made.
 
For more, we're joined now by the Health Minister, Mark Butler, and Liberal Senator, Jane Hume. Welcome to you both. Jane, you've worked very closely with Sussan Ley. Is she the right person to unite the party and build a strong opposition?
 
SENATOR JANE HUME: Mon, she is the right person. This has been an entirely unedifying week for the Coalition. Not something that we want to repeat, something that we should learn from, but the most important thing now is that that we move on and start talking about what's important to Australians, which is the fact that our living standards aren't going to return to where they were until 2037. The fact that businesses are going under in record numbers, the fact that there are failures in aged care. That's what's important to ordinary Australians, not leadership nonsense in the Liberal Party. We need to move on now.
 
WRIGHT: Absolutely, but we also need a strong opposition to keep the government in check. And Jane, there is disunity in your party. Just this week, you said she probably should have picked up the phone herself rather than sending in a henchman. You were referring to Alex Hawke calling Senator Price and suggesting that she apologise. Has Sussan Ley mishandled this?
 
HUME: I think there has been mishandling on all sides, but the good news is we have cauterised the wound. We are going to move on now and talk about what's important to ordinary Australians.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, and you're backing Sussan Ley?
 
HUME: Absolutely.
 
WRIGHT: Alright. Mark, I just mentioned it then. Are we not better, all of us, as a country, to have a strong and united opposition?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Of course, that's how democracy functions well. I think Jane's been one of the few voices of reason over the last week. I haven't been able to walk past a TV without seeing one of Jane's colleagues telling Australians what they think of Sussan Ley or Senator Price or both of them. And Jane said days ago what that does is send a message to the Australian people that the Coalition are focused on themselves rather than the interests of Australian households and business. They should be focused on holding us to account and also putting together a policy platform after an election where they did pretty poorly. I think Jane's been a voice of reason here. It's obviously up to the Liberals to determine whether next week is like the last week, which has been a pretty ordinary outing for them. But we're focused in the meantime on getting on with our job of governing Australia.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, speaking of which, state health ministers are accusing the federal government of leaving elderly Australians effectively homeless for failing to provide enough beds in aged care. Mark, you're in charge of health and ageing. Right now, nearly 2,500 older Australians are stuck in hospital. They shouldn't be there. Medically, they shouldn't be there. But there is nowhere else for them to go. The families are desperate, Mark. They need an appropriate place for their loved ones. Will you fix this and when?
 
BUTLER: This is why there's no area of policy where we've invested more money over the last three years and more time and energy than aged care, because when we came to government, staff were leaving in droves and there were no new facilities being built. We know we need to build enormous numbers of new facilities to accommodate the ageing of the baby boomer generation, which is upon us now. We're starting to see that turn around, but they're not happening in the numbers we need right now today. That's why we are providing record funding to state governments to support their hospital operations and targeted investment to help older Australians either avoid having to go to hospital in the first place if they can be cared for out in the community, or if they are in hospital, moving through the system as quickly as possible. It's not perfect right now, we've got to do more. I'm meeting with my state and territory health colleagues in a few hours to work through how we can do more.
 
WRIGHT: And because they're criticising you, so hopefully something happens. Jane, you say Labor's reforms are causing a hospital logjam, but under the Coalition, the system was also stretched and aged care was in crisis then. Why should we believe that you'd do any better?
 
HUME: Mon, at the last election, Labor promised an increased number of Home Care Packages to help elderly Australians get the services they need. They reneged on that promise. If it wasn't for the Coalition and the Greens getting together and forcing Labor to release more Home Care Packages at the last round of sitting weeks, well, there'd still be more and more Australians that are waiting for the care that they deserve. Even the South Australian Health Minister has called this a national tragedy. Five thousand Australians died waiting for appropriate care just in the last 12 months alone. It's not acceptable. It's not good enough. I hope Mark can make some headway today.
 
WRIGHT: Yep, absolutely. Hear, hear. Thank you both. We appreciate that. Mark, Jane, see you next week.