Television interview with Minister Butler, Today – 27 October 2025

SARAH ABO, HOST:  Well, summit season is underway this morning. The Prime Minister kicking things off in Kuala Lumpur, where close calls in the Pacific, the war in Ukraine and escalating tariffs are all on the agenda. For more, we are joined this morning by Health Minister Mark Butler in Canberra. Good morning to you Minister. Good to see you this morning. You guys all back from holidays, you’re returning to Parliament, but the PM is away again. What's going on?
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: As he said, there's a lot to talk about. I think they call this summit season, and there are three summits the Prime Minister will be attending this week. Obviously, with the Southeast Asian nations in ASEAN, but the US will be there, China, Japan, the Prime Minister's already met overnight with the new Japanese Prime Minister, a key security partner, obviously a key trading partner as well. India and others are there as well. This is important, busy work at a time where there's a lot on the international agenda that's really important for Australia's security and economic interests.
 
ABO: I can't believe they didn't consult the calendar to check if it suited our Parliament. But look, you're right, obviously he's going to be very busy with ASEAN alongside his pals Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. Those two superpowers are of course currently trying to negotiate a trade deal between them. We've filled the critical minerals void. So how does that play out for us and our relations with China?
 
BUTLER: As the Prime Minister and other ministers have said we agree where we can and we disagree where we must. This is an important economic relationship, but so is our economic and security relationship with the Americans. As you saw and your viewers saw with the very productive meeting between the Prime Minister and the US President last week, this critical minerals area is a really important part of our economic development but also a strong secure supply for the rest of the world. This was an important measure to be agreed between the President and the Prime Minister last week. Relevant ministers, including our own Minister Madeleine King, are gathering over the course of the coming days to start to put that into practice, and there's a huge upside for Australia in all of this.
 
ABO: There are a few points of disagreement as well, though, Minister. Is the PM planning to raise Chinese aggression with the Chinese president? I mean, that close call in the South Pacific with China, that put our air force in danger. It was really an ugly sight.
 
BUTLER: We've already made our position clear to the Chinese government that this was unsafe and unprofessional, and we'll always do that with whomever we're talking in the area of incidents like this.
 
ABO: Will the PM address it, though, specifically?
 
BUTLER: I don't know what the Prime Minister is going to talk about with the President if they get to meet. There are a lot of meetings over the course of this week. But we've been very clear as a country that we insist in international waters, in international airspace, and that's where this incident happened, that there's a very clear expectation on all armed forces to behave safely and professionally.
 
ABO: Alright, let's move on to your portfolio now. And today you are announcing lower costs and better healthcare for Australian women. Much overdue and much welcome. A few changes include some new PBS listings and better training for health professionals. Talk us through how many women you think you might be able to help with this.
 
BUTLER: Literally hundreds of thousands. We think from the changes that come into effect at the end of this week to support better affordability for long-acting contraception's, literally 300,000 women every year will save hundreds and hundreds of dollars. There hadn't been a new contraceptive pill on the PBS for three decades, Sarah. We fixed that with three new pills that hundreds of thousands of women were using because they're really highly effective and don't have side effects that some of the older medicines have, but they were paying top dollar. No one had bothered putting them on the PBS and we've done that. And since then, hundreds of thousands of women have had those contraceptives available at much cheaper prices, and we're adding a fourth new contraceptive over the course of this week. NuvaRing which will again be about two-thirds cheaper at the end of this week compared to what it was earlier in the week. By the time we cut medicines even further on 1 January, Australia's women will have access to all of their contraceptive choices for no more than $100 a year. And that's as it should be. This is essential healthcare for hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Australia's women.
 
ABO: Yeah, it'll be welcomed by women right across the country. Mark Butler, good of you to join us this morning. Appreciate it.
 
BUTLER: Thanks Sarah.