Television interview with Minister Butler, Sunrise – 18 July 2025

MONIQUE WRIGHT, HOST: The Prime Minister has hit back at claims from the opposition that his trip to China has been indulgent, saying Australia will reap economic rewards from showing respect to the country. The Coalition took aim at Anthony Albanese on the final few days of his diplomatic visit, criticising him for seeing pandas playing tennis and scaling the Great Wall of China. For more, we're joined now by Health Minister Mark Butler and Liberal Senator Jane Hume. Welcome to you both. Nice to see you.
 
So, Jane, of course, China is our biggest trade partner. We all know that. Up to 600,000 jobs supported by our economic relationship. The PM says that he's repairing the damage made by the former coalition government. Do you really think if Peter Dutton had become Prime Minister in May that he wouldn't visit pandas or walk along the Great Wall if the advice was that it was important to this crucial relationship?
 
JANE HUME, SENATOR: You're right that this was a very important trip and we want, the Coalition want, a good and strong relationship with China. They're a very important partner for us, but it has to be a mutually respectful relationship as well. There were great opportunities in this trip. Our concern is that it became more of a photo opportunity. In between walks on the Great Wall and cuddles with pandas, there seemed to be more in it for the Prime Minister's Instagram than the country's national interest.
 
I mean, let's face it, at the end of this trip, are we safer? Well, no. In fact, when the live firing in civilian airspace was brought up, it was made pretty clear to the Prime Minister that the Chinese military will continue to do whatever it is that they want to do. Are we richer after this trip? Well, that remains to be seen. It appears on the surface that there were more fawning concessions in trade from Australia's perspective than China's. I think China might have done better out of this trip than Australia did. So, there was great opportunity here. We're worried that it was more a photo opportunity and that would be a waste.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, Mark, couldn't the PM have just had the official dates and come home?

MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: I think Australians understand the impact that these images have on building respect between two peoples because we do it when we host visitors. We take our visitors to iconic Australian destinations. We expose them to the unique Australian wildlife because we know that builds respect and that's just so important with our most important trading partner.
 
And to Jane's point, they just haven't learned from their addiction to negativity over the last three years. To Jane's point, the Prime Minister was there securing and seeking to expand those relationships to build our economic prosperity and our jobs in areas like medtech, medical technology, the work he did with Cochlear yesterday. This is one of Australia's greatest inventions, seeking to expand that opportunity into China. Apples, tourism, steel inputs, this is all about jobs and prosperity in our country.
 
WRIGHT: Okay, want to move on now. An ecological catastrophe which threatens to decimate businesses in South Australia. Now, we're talking about the toxic algal bloom which the federal government was warned about back in 2023. Mark, this is happening in your own electorate. People are saying if it was in Bondi in Sydney, the Prime Minister would be the first one there. Can't you push the state government there to do more here?
 
BUTLER: I am on one of those beaches right now and this algal bloom, Karenia mikimotoi, is known to Australia, but we've never seen a bloom like this, of this scale, of this duration, anywhere in Australia. It is incredibly serious. I was walking on the beach behind me on the weekend, I saw a dead shark, dead rays, a number of dead rays, dead fish, dead cuttlefish, things I've never seen before in the decades of walking along Adelaide's beaches. This is very, very serious. We're working closely with the South Australian government to monitor this and to understand it. The head of our Oceans Division of the Department of the Environment is out in the Southern Ocean now, I think, with South Australian officials, and we want to work closely to make sure that any request for assistance from South Australia is carefully considered.
 
WRIGHT: Yeah, but what would you say to the South Australian government? What are you saying to the South Australian government? There are small businesses there that are being decimated here, quite aside from the ecological catastrophe. So what do you want the South Australian government to do? Do you want them to ask you for help?
 
BUTLER: I've been talking with them. I'm talking with them again today, the Deputy Premier and the Minister for the Environment. It is important to say that we've never seen anything quite like this in Australia before. Understanding how it is unfolding is obviously important. I've seen it compared to a bushfire or a cyclone. It's not really anything like that. It's more comparable really to a drought. It's a huge ecological event, which obviously we can't control any more than we can make it rain during a drought. But we have to understand the impact it is having on communities, and it's a huge impact on the Adelaide community, I can tell you, but also on businesses, on commercial enterprises, particularly in the fishing industry. Working through that with the state government, as we would with any other similar ecological event, extreme event like this, is going to be incredibly important.
 
WRIGHT: Yeah, well, Mark Butler, I know that the local community there desperately want something done asap. Thank you for your time. Jane Hume, always great to see you. Thank you both.