TV interview with Minister Butler, ABC Afternoon Briefing – 25 June 2026

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Minister, welcome to Afternoon Briefing.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thank you, Patricia.
 
KARVELAS: Your controversial tax changes have just passed the Parliament. That of course is a victory for the Government, there's no doubt about it, but it doesn't mean the debate's been won in the court of public opinion, does it?
 
BUTLER: Budgets do take a while to really sort of permeate the public consciousness, but this is a really important passage. We've got really important rights for first home buyers now; we're already seeing that anecdotally in Saturday afternoon auctions. This is finally giving young Australians a fair crack at owning a home. We're also getting much fairer treatment of income between wages and investment income which allows us to deliver our fifth tax cut to wage earners as well. It's a very, very good package.
 
KARVELAS: And does it allow you then to kind of put this away, or will you continue to campaign around it? Because it's been quite unpopular if you look at the public polling.
 
BUTLER: We think this is worth backing in, of course. We're going to campaign on making sure young Australians get the opportunity to own their own home like previous generations of Australians have enjoyed. We're going to campaign on delivering our fifth tax cut, a tax cut which, yet again just about 10 minutes ago, the Liberal Party opposed and, yet again, they've promised to repeal if they're elected at the next election.
 
KARVELAS: Well, they have an alternative tax policy they announced, but I take your point. In terms of legislation on this issue, today there was a bit of confusion about when the Government became aware that divorcees and widows were subject to the capital gains tax and the negative gearing tax changes. Why wasn't that fixed before this debate began?
 
BUTLER: As the Treasurer has said right through this process, including today, about this particular issue, I mean, tax reform is complex. Every significant tax reform going back several decades has had a number of tranches of legislation to deal with some of these complexities, and this is one. As the Housing Minister said a number of times in Question Time today, this will come back before the Parliament, as a number of things will over the course of the rest of the year. We've got consultations around start-up arrangements and things like that. We've obviously got trusts legislation to deal with later in the year. That's pretty much the normal course of events for significant tax reform.
 
KARVELAS: Let's talk about your legislation, which hasn't passed and won't pass this fortnight. The Shadow NDIS Minister Melissa McIntosh says, this extended NDIS inquiry lacks transparency. A couple of questions. Will more submissions be allowed? Will it all be transparent? And will you listen to the advice, or is it just a sort of theatre, a process?
 
BUTLER: We thought the legislation was ready to be dealt with this fortnight. There had been an inquiry, hundreds and hundreds of submissions, public hearings, but we didn't have a partner in dealing with that debate. Both the Oppositions said that there should be a six-month extension to the inquiry, although I think that was really a bargaining chip about taxation more than anything else. And obviously, the Greens were not willing to have the bill dealt with at all this fortnight as well. We think it was ready, but of course we -
 
KARVELAS: Well, the Coalition said they're happy to work with you, but you didn't take that offer.
 
BUTLER: They're happy to work with us, but they wanted really to use the debate in this bill as a bargaining chip with the Greens to delay taxation legislation being dealt with. We had no passage, either with the Greens or with the Opposition, to have a debate on the bill this fortnight. There will be another inquiry or an extension of the existing inquiry. How that happens is a matter for the Senate.
 
KARVELAS: Submissions published?
 
BUTLER: It's a matter for the Senate.
 
KARVELAS: But you support that, a transcript process?
 
BUTLER: This is a legislative inquiry, not an executive inquiry. Of course I support people being able to have their say about this. I think another eight weeks of people being able to have a say about their views of the legislation and Government being able to provide ongoing reassurance about what does change under this bill, more importantly, what does not change under this bill.
 
KARVELAS: And just a quick answer on this, because I know you have to go. Are you willing to change course on some elements as a result of the next eight weeks?
 
BUTLER: We've demonstrated, over the last 24 hours, a willingness to do things at the edges. But the basic direction of travel I announced several weeks ago at the Press Club I'm very confident is the right thing for the NDIS and the right thing in the long term for participants as well.
 
KARVELAS: Minister, thanks for coming in.
 
BUTLER: Thanks, Patricia.