Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Radio National Breakfast – 17 July 2026

Media event date: 17 July 2026 Date published: 17 July 2026 Media type: General public SALLY SARA, HOST: As you've been hearing this morning, despite the proliferation of illegal tobacco, new national data shows that rates of smoking have fallen to a historic low in Australia. According to the latest annual survey by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, just 5.6 per cent of Australians aged over 14 were smoking daily last year.

That's well below the Government's 10 per cent target for 2025. And there is some good news on vaping – after years of rising use, the daily rate has stabilised, but some Australians are leaning more heavily on other nicotine products. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler joins me now.

Minister, welcome back to Breakfast. MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thanks, Sally. What sort of picture does this data paint on smoking?

What do you think has contributed to the lower rates of smoking in Australia? : We know that more than 90 per cent of smokers want to quit, and we've been boosting the resources available to them to help them quit. More information campaigns for the first time in a decade, more ways in which they can get support to quit. The apps that are now available that help you quit, that have prompts that help you sort of resist urges and things like that, downloads of them have been doubling year on year.

They doubled last year, they're doubling again this year. More people are getting prescriptions for nicotine replacement therapy than happened in the past, in spite of the fact there are fewer smokers in Australia. It shouldn't be any surprise, really, in spite of this explosion of illegal cigarettes, which has been a law and order disaster, that it hasn't changed the general mindset of smokers, which is they want to quit and they need some help to do that.

At the same time that more people are quitting cigarettes, we are continuing to see fewer and fewer people, particularly young people, take up cigarettes, certainly as daily smokers. This is some really reassuring data, continues a downward trajectory for decades, and it represents some of the lowest rates of daily smoking you'll find anywhere in the world. Laura Hunter, CEO of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, joined me earlier and was talking about people using illicit tobacco.

LAURA HUNTER, CEO, AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL ON SMOKING AND HEALTH: People purchasing illicit products has doubled, which is a huge concern. The Government is very aware of that and we've been pushing for more investment from the Federal Government to fund the states and territories and support their enforcement efforts. These stores are trading in open market, and what we're seeing is young people are accessing all of these nicotine products from bricks and mortar stores.

That's where they're getting them. And if we can shut them down, that’s going to make a really big difference to de-normalising this illicit nicotine trade. [End of excerpt] : Minister, do you agree that more needs to be done? Yes, I do, and I've said that for a long period of time.

We've substantially lifted our resources to try and stop these products coming into Australia in the first place. In the last 11 months, I think your listeners will be stunned to hear we've intercepted literally more than 2 billion cigarettes – not 2 million, 2 billion cigarettes – coming into Australia, and still these shops are selling them right through Australian cities and towns.

We’re also intercepting record numbers of new products, and not just vapes, but over the last few years, this report talks about the very significant increase in the use of nicotine pouches. These little pouches of nicotine that people stick between their gums and their lips and have sit there for extended periods of time, which is being used quite widely including by young people.

There's a lot of effort at the border, but we do need state governments in some parts of the country to lift their efforts. There are some standouts – the South Australian and Queensland governments are widely recognised not just by us, but by organisations like the one you interviewed as real leaders in this area. They're shutting down the shops, they're targeting landlords that knowingly lease their premises to people selling illegal cigarettes and other products.

But really, we haven't seen the big states come to the party on that enforcement effort until relatively recently. On a separate issue earlier this week at the National Press Club, outgoing Aged Care Inspector-General Natalie Siegel-Brown warned that the rollout of the government's aged care changes risked actually harming those that they were supposed to help.

Has the Government rushed these reforms? We've made no apology for having to act pretty quickly to get the aged care system back on track after the condition that the Royal Commission found it to be in, which they summarised in one word: neglect. We've had to do that for its own sake, obviously, but also recognising that the demand for aged care is skyrocketing right now as the early baby boomers start to hit that age.

So, yes, we've moved quickly, but I'm confident that the changes we made are being implemented properly. Big expansions in the number of packages for people to get support at home. We're seeing assessment times come down very significantly.

Wait times come down for those packages coming down significantly as well. So has the Inspector-General got it wrong, do you think? I didn't watch her entire speech.

Some of the reports from it I found surprising. She talked about things that we learned about in Government for the first time. She hasn't been reporting some of the issues that got a lot of attention in the media before to us.

She talked about economic modelling that she's not provided to us. She talked about the number of people waiting for aged care that's very different to the numbers that are being reported by our department in a very transparent, regular way. There was a lot of that contribution by the outgoing Inspector-General that I found a little surprising.

But I think everyone, whether you're the Inspector-General leaving the job or listeners to your program, desperately want government and providers to do the best to provide dignified, high-quality aged care to a very fast-growing group of older Australians. And we're working every day to do that. Let's look at a separate issue now.

A podcast conversation between One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and UK far-right figure Tommy Robinson has been published this morning, Australian time. It includes comments from Senator Hanson accusing Muslim Australians of taking advantage of the NDIS. This is what she had to say.

PAULINE HANSON, ONE NATION LEADER: We've got nearly 800,000 on, and it's costing us $53 billion now a year. TOMMY ROBINSON, FAR RIGHT PODCAST HOST : You've got 800,000. Is there any way of finding out the nationality of those people or the origin of countries. : A lot of them are ripping the system off who are a lot from the Muslim areas, and they're getting on the scheme.

But there's a lot of Aussies too, other Aussies, so I'm not just going to pick them out. But it is quite known that in the Muslim streets, you've got quite a lot on that street who are on the NDIS scheme. [End of excerpt] What's your response to those comments from Senator Hanson? : First of all, I'm loathe to respond to a podcast between Ms Hanson and this convicted criminal who frankly has been disowned by so many leading figures on the right, whether it's Andrew Bolt here in Australia or Nigel Farage himself over in the UK.

But I will say this, I’ve never received any advice that there’s any particular breakdown in nationality or religious background on the NDIS that is different to the usual breakdown on the population. I'm not sure where Ms Hanson is getting her figures from, but they've never been provided to me as the Minister for Disability and the Minister for the NDIS. I suspect they don't exist.

What do you think more broadly about an Australian politician going overseas on a trip like this and participating in meetings and conversations with a convicted criminal and far-right figure like Tommy Robinson? Ultimately it's a matter for Ms Hanson to explain to Australians what this tour and what this particular podcast is doing to improve the condition of Australian households at a pretty challenging time for Australian households.

Cost of living pressures are what we're focused on as a Government. Delivering better aged care is what we're focused on as a Government, not going overseas and spending extended periods meeting with people like Tommy Robinson. : Minister, thank you for joining me this morning. Thanks, Sally.

The Hon Mark Butler MP Smoking, vaping and tobacco 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