TV interview with Minister Butler, ABC News Breakfast – 12 December 2025

BRIDGET BRENNAN, HOST: Well, more than 3,000 aged care patients are stranded in public hospitals in what's been dubbed a national shame.
 
JAMES GLENDAY, HOST: The states and territories are piling the pressure on the Commonwealth, or at least they're trying to, ahead of a meeting with the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, who joins us now from Brisbane. Minister, welcome back to the program.
 
MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thank you, James.
 
GLENDAY: Now, you've been discussing this for a really long time with the states. Can you get a deal done before the end of the year?
 
BUTLER: I think we can. Our job as health ministers is to try to narrow the points of difference that still exist between us, not just in hospital funding but also in disabilities reform, down to three or four or five points that then our bosses, the premiers and the Prime Minister, can come together and finalise before the end of the year, before Christmas hopefully. And I think we're making good progress on that.
 
GLENDAY: Yeah, every single state health minister and territory minister has basically spoken and said, we need more cash. What are you going to want from the states in return?
 
BUTLER: Stop the presses. This has been a pretty reliable feature of Commonwealth-state relations for many, many decades, and we're offering significantly more cash. They would have got an additional $12 billion under existing hospital arrangements. We've upped that already by $21 billion, up to $33 billion additional into their hospital systems, as well as this week the Prime Minister offering another $2 billion to ease that point you raised in your introduction, the issue of older patients stuck for too long in our hospital system. It's a very generous offer. We've got more discussions to have, obviously. We'll have some of them today here in Brisbane when we meet as a group of health ministers, but I still feel pretty confident we can get a deal before Christmas.
 
GLENDAY: I just want to take you to this issue of aged care in particular. I mean, we've heard from a lot of families who have had a loved one at home, they've done their best, they get to the point where they just can't do it anymore, and in many cases they say that they're told, go to the emergency department, check your loved one in, and that'll force the issue. They'll be in hospital for a bit, and eventually an aged care place will open up. I mean, what is the solution to this? Because as the population ages, as the baby boomers get older, they're a huge cohort, the pressure just continues to mount on our hospitals.
 
BUTLER: You're right to say there's a demographic issue here. The baby boomers are starting to turn 80 this year, which is really the age of entry to aged care. We're seeing a big lift in demand for aged care, and we're not building enough facilities. I've been pretty clear about that. That's why we passed legislation last year to make it, as the aged care providers describe it, more investable, more reasonable for them to build new facilities. But they're not happening quickly enough, and I've said that to aged care providers.
 
We also need more Home Care Packages into the system, which is why we're delivering tens of thousands of them this financial year. We already have double the number of packages we had five years ago. We're increasing it another quarter this year. But keeping up with that growing demand as the baby boomer generation comes to the age where they need more aged care is a challenge for all of us. It is impacting hospital systems, but it's also impacting other parts of the health system, and most importantly impacting families. I want us to work together on this. This is probably the most significant challenge we have across the health and social care system. How do we make sure aged care is there in sufficient numbers for the ageing baby boomer population? They deserve it.
 
GLENDAY: All the best for the meeting today. There is a lot of quotes about premiers and buckets of cash and things like that. I'm sure that's going to come up later. Before I let you go, I do just want to ask you about this expenses scandal that's been rolling on and on. Is it time for the government to sit down with the Opposition, maybe the crossbench as well, and rewrite some of these rules so that public expectations in this area are very clear and are always met by politicians of all stripes?
 
BUTLER: The independent parliamentary authority is now considering a reference that Anika Wells made to them about her claims, and I think that's a good thing that they have a look at that. But also, I think this is an opportunity for that independent authority to consider if they have some advice and recommendations about ways in which we could change the system. I'd welcome that. The Prime Minister said yesterday he would welcome it. The independence, I think, is a really important part of this system. These conditions that bring families together in a very challenging job that places enormous pressure, most of all on our partners and on our children, I think is important, but it must be reasonable and it must be used in a sensible way. And if the independent authority has some advice about ways in which we could change the system to reflect those two lodestars, reasonableness and the use of these conditions in a sensible way, I think we'd all welcome that.
 
GLENDAY: Sounds like there's more to come on that. Minister, thanks for joining us this morning.
 
BUTLER: Thank you, James.