Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Radio Hobart – 7 July 2026

Media event date: 7 July 2026 Date published: 7 July 2026 Media type: General public LEON COMPTON, HOST: I'm wondering what you'd like to know this morning – Mark Butler to join us. In fact, the federal Health Minister and Minister for the NDIS and Ageing joins us now. Good morning to you, Minister.

Minister, you had a chance to listen to Emily Shepherd there and ask questions about these 1400 Tasmanians that have been served by funded palliative care support. That funding's now gone. What responsibility, if any, can you take for that decision?

MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: What we've done is incorporated palliative care for the first time into the aged care system. The new Support at Home system, or what used to be called Home Care Package system for aged care, now for the first time ever allows people to receive palliative care at home through the aged care system.

And that’s a reform that the palliative care sector and older Australians more generally have been calling for, for many years, and we’ve delivered over the last 12 months. I think what Emily was implying there is right, is that from the federal government's point of view, what was a bit of a bridge program under the former federal government, is now a structural part of the aged care system so that people are able to receive that for the first time ever at home.

If there's been a complaint about our palliative care systems in Australia, it is the lack of home-based solutions. Otherwise, we have one of the better systems in the world, but far too many people end up having to go to hospital for their final days and weeks instead of really dying at home, which is where most Australians want to do that. And we’re changing that through our reforms to the aged care system.

But it sounds like the consequence, while those changes are taking place, is that people who would have expected care are being left without it, Minister. We're saying there are different and better care options. I'm not quite aware of what the Tasmanian Government is doing here.

I'm happy to take that on notice. I've heard Emily just talk about that then and I'm happy to go and get further information about that. But I'm very proud, very happy about what we are doing in palliative care.

This has been something called for, for as long as I've been involved in that sector, which is many, many years, and we're delivering it for the first time. How did it feel hearing the stories of the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department at 10 o'clock, 11 o’clock last night, effectively being overwhelmed, people treated in corridors, one resuscitation base still available, and a complex series of reasons as to why that was happening?

As the federal Health Minister, how did it feel hearing that story? Unfortunately, it felt familiar. I've heard Emily tell that story now a number of times over many years.

There are 750 public hospitals in Australia. I'm not really across the working details of all of them. But year after year, I've heard the same issues raised about the LGH and the lack of good patient flow systems, the difficulty the LGH has in staffing their emergency department.

So I think there is something particular about how the LGH is operating that the state government needs to pay more attention to. They have enough money. This was my follow-up question.

You've allocated $700 million in additional funding negotiated with the state back January. That's over 5 years. It's likely to be more than that, because this year what we've done is we've given them a big increase, as we have every state.

But what we’ve done for the first time is to recognise that the smaller jurisdictions, so essentially Tasmania and the 2 territories, have particular challenges in funding the health system. So we’ve given a small states adjustment on top of that. So this year, the Tasmanian Government will receive 20 per cent more than they would have under the old Morrison-era agreement.

So instead of 750 million, they'll receive 910 million. It's a huge increase. And so Tasmanians will be listening to this complexity and seeing this extra money coming into the system and asking, will that be enough to have a system where there is improved flow for people that need help and go seeking it at the front door of the LGH?

I'll come back to the point I made earlier. I've heard Emily make that argument about the LGH, and she knows an enormous amount about the health system. She's in touch with frontline nurses, her members, all the time.

And there's this story about the LGH that's been running for too long, frankly, that the patient flow systems don't work. Now, I don’t pretend that there is not huge pressure on every single public hospital in the country, there is. We’re ageing as a population, there’s more chronic disease, there is pressure on every hospital.

But I've been hearing these stories about the LGH for a number of years now, and there just seems to be something operationally that could be improved there. 936 ABC Hobart and ABC North Tas, Mark Butler is our guest this morning – Minister for Ageing, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, and of course the Minister for Health. Minister, I want to ask you about a story that had a lot of our listeners engaged through the course of this year, your plan to cut parts of the subsidy for older Tasmanians to pay for their private health insurance.

Have a listen to some of what we heard a month or so ago when we were talking about this last. I simply can't afford that anymore. I've got to give it up.

I've been struggling to keep it. I wouldn't be able to afford it either. I'll just have to cancel.

And I would go without food or fuel in my car to keep it. I will have to cancel. [End of excerpt] That's some of the listeners talking to us. Minister, how can it make for a better healthcare system if people over 65 are being forced off private health insurance and into the public system.

Every budget is about choices, Leon, as you know, and every budget that I've been involved with since we came to government a few years ago, there has been an almost unsatiable demand for more aged care funding. We're at a point where demand for aged care is increasing at a rate we've never seen in this country, particularly as the post-war baby boomers born in the ‘40s start to hit that age where they need aged care.

They’re turning 80 this year, next year. Every budget we’re having to find billions of dollars more in aged care funding. And as your listeners know, that there are not spare billions of dollars lying around in the budget for that so we've had to look at ways in which we can find that extra money, and one of the decisions we took, and it was a hard decision this Budget, was that the extra support that over 65s got for their private health insurance was not something we could continue in good faith given we had to find extra money for aged care.

But is it a false economy – is it a false economy, Minister? So, if these older Tasmanians are being forced into the public system, which makes it more difficult access for everybody, does it turn out that could in fact be a false economy? I'll come to that.

But firstly, the reason for doing it. When private health insurance subsidies were put in place 25 years ago, everyone got the same subsidy, regardless of their age. And that was changed by John Howard to give an additional subsidy to people.

So there might be 2 households next door to each other on exactly the same income with private health insurance. And they'd be getting different levels of support, not based on their income, but based on their age. And we just thought that was not something we could continue when we needed to find billions of dollars extra in aged care funding.

Now, to the question you raise about what the impact of that is going to be, our modelling indicates that there will be a very modest impact on the number of people in private health insurance because of this, about 0.4 per cent change and that's in the context of private health insurance increasing by 2 per cent every year. So we did look at that very carefully.

Obviously, we didn't want to create a problem elsewhere in the healthcare system, but we're confident that won't happen. Now, again, I come back to the point, Leon. I wish I didn't have to take that decision, but when we're confronted with this crying need for more aged care, and you and I have talked about this on your program where people are struggling to get an aged care package, we're struggling to have enough beds in residential aged care, it was – you know, we had to make a hard choice.

There's not simply billions of dollars of spare money lying around to fund this additional aged care supply that we need, desperately need. 936 ABC Hobart, ABC Northern Tasmania, you can join us too. Mark Butler, what are you doing in Launceston at the moment? You're there for a couple of days.

What are you up to? Well, visiting a whole bunch of different services in my portfolio. I'll be dropping in at the urgent care clinic at some point here.

This is a program that's now fully up and running, 137 urgent care clinics across the country, and they are taking pressure off those emergency departments. They’ll see about 2 million people every year, and half of them tell us they otherwise would have gone to the emergency department. So, it is taking some pressure off some of the issues that you were talking with Emily Shepherd about.

But I'll also be going to an aged care facility that's received a grant from the Commonwealth to expand their services. I'm talking to disability organisations and then heading over to Devonport to do pretty much the same over the next 24, 36 hours. A question on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

You’d be aware that Tasmania lives with – we have more of us living with disability than other parts of the country. What would you say to parents who are still concerned about your plan to shift young people living with an autism diagnosis off the federal scheme and into the hands of the state? First of all, I'd say you are going to get support.

You know, we are not going to do that without making sure there are appropriate programs of support in place for under nine year olds. We're doing that. We've got an agreement with the Tasmanian government to start rolling out what I call the Thriving Kids program for kids under 9.

And we'll do the same with older children and adults, for that matter, who might not end up on the NDIS in the future. And can I just interrupt for a moment, Minister? People will have listened to where we started this conversation.

Will it be support that looks roughly like the management of the Launceston General Hospital Emergency Department? It's a hard question, but people will be asking, is that the same sort of system management that will be put into when these new changes come into place? No, it will be support that parents with slightly older children will be very familiar with.

There were supports that were in place for children with autism or developmental delay, with more low to moderate support needs before the NDIS was created. There was a world before the NDIS, which most of us do remember. And what we’ve seen happen though is that a scheme that was set up for significant and permanent disability has taken on some hundreds of thousands of people for whom it was not intended.

And the scheme is really struggling. It's growing far too fast. It's frankly too big, not just for the budget.

I mean, it's costing an extraordinary amount of money for taxpayers, but it's also dislocating a whole lot of other services and systems elsewhere in the care economy. I think people broadly understand, I certainly get a lot of feedback that the NDIS, as proud as we are of this extraordinary reform, needs to be put back on track, needs to be made more sustainable for the long term.

But that has to be partnered with or accompanied with hard work between the Commonwealth, and in our case, Leon, the Tasmanian state government, to ensure there are supports there for people, including parents with children with autism or other developmental needs. We’re committed to doing that. If they’re not ready in place, of course we’re not going to leave parents with nothing there to support them.

Appreciate you talking with us this morning. Thank you. Thanks Leon.

Mark Butler, federal Health Minister, Minister for Ageing, Minister for the NDIS. The Hon Mark Butler MP Palliative care Private health insurance Disability and carers Accessibility We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present. © Commonwealth of Australia