Radio interview with Minister Butler, ABC Radio National – 7 September 2026

Media event date: 7 September 2026 Date published: 7 September 2026 Media type: General public SALLY SARA, HOST: Well, to federal politics, and parliamentarians are gathering once again for another sitting fortnight in Canberra. This week, the federal government is expected to release its long-awaited Digital Duty of Care draft bill in a bid to crack down on social media algorithms.

Mark Butler is the Federal Minister for Health and Ageing and the Minister for Disability and the NDIS. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast. MARK BUTLER, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING, MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND THE NDIS: Thanks very much. : Let’s start with the Digital Duty of Care draft laws.

They’re set to create an opt-out system so that users can turn off the algorithms on social media platforms. The Coalition has raised concerns about censorship, are those concerns valid? : We don’t think they are. We think this is a really important step in the very fast-changing landscape of social media.

And its pretty unremarkable, really, to expect the big companies have a duty of care not to harm Australian citizens particularly, frankly, young Australians. Now, we’ll have more to say through Anika Wells about the opt-out, opt-in debate that is happening quite rightly about this change. But the idea that algorithms are used in a way which prevents and minimises harm to Australians, I think, is a pretty unremarkable one.

The idea that this is some censorship or infringement of civil liberties almost harks back to the days of the 1970s when people were protesting about seatbelts being introduced into cars. This is, I think, a really important step in our determination to make sure that this introduction of smartphones and social media and all that it’s doing to change the way in which we interact and gather information is safe, particularly for young people. : If people opt out of the algorithms, what will they see instead? : We'll roll that detail out over the course of this week.

And obviously, this technically is a significant change that would be made. But I think the debate that you've seen over the last several weeks here in Australia gives you a sense of how acutely Australians feel about this. They are seeing the rubbish, the toxic filth that is being forced into the screens of particularly our young people.

But also for adults as well, they don't choose to see some of the stuff that's coming onto their phone. First of all, we think big tech needs to be reminded of the fact that every business in this country making a profit has a duty of care not to harm people, whether it's about making food to ensure that its consumption is safe, cars, all the other things that are an everyday part of our life, big tech is no different.

They should have this duty of care. : What will the proposed laws involve any government definition of what actually constitutes harmful online content? What's the government's thinking there? : Anika hasn't yet announced what's going to be in those laws. We'll do that over the course of this week.

I think it's been made clear too that these are pretty world-leading changes, as has the minimum age laws for social media for kids under the age of 16 been world-leading laws. This is something countries across the world are thinking about, populations, parents and school communities are thinking about. As this change has really swept through communities and changed the way in which people gather information, the way they interact with other human beings, we’ve got to make sure that it's safe and people are choosing what they're consuming. : Is there any risk that the social media companies could withdraw their platforms from Australia? : They always make that threat, don't they?

They did when we introduced the 16-year-old age limit for social media. They're still here. These are the sorts of arguments that governments have to have with big companies that are making huge profits from our citizens.

We've got a duty to make sure that we have in place laws that keep people safe and laws that make sure that companies have particular obligations. : Let's talk about tobacco. Do you accept that illicit cigarettes and vapes are already widely available and law enforcement alone won't be enough to change that? : On vapes, what I'd say is that in the three years before we took action, vaping, particularly among young Australians, because that's really the population that were using vapes, increased by more than fivefold.

It was going through the roof like a rocket. We've not only stopped that increase, we've turned it around. Vastly fewer teenagers and young adults are vaping than before because of the changes we made.

I don't accept that they're widely available. They're less available, they're more expensive than they were before we took the changes. On tobacco, there’s no question we have a very serious challenge on our hands as a country with the scale of the illegal market.

Every country has illegal cigarettes. The scale of the illegal market here has exploded over the last three or four years, and that's a huge law enforcement challenge for us. : Has the government done any modelling looking into the effect that any drop in tobacco excise might have on smoking rates at all? : I've made the point that no one has been able to produce a sweet spot on excise, which would make a material difference to the illegal market, but also not do harm to our most important public health program, and that is smoking.

Smoking still kills more Australians than any other preventable cause, more than 20,000 every year. And that, I think, is the remarkable thing about the Angus Taylor announcement over the last few days. He admitted yesterday they hadn’t even modelled the impact of their change on smoking rates. : Have you? : On our most important public health program.

We haven't announced a policy to change the excise. Obviously, I've said - : But do you model on your excise and other levels of excise? : Obviously, yeah. And the overwhelming evidence from around the world has been that price is a significant disincentive for smoking.

Now, the illegal market has changed the dynamics of that here in Australia, there’s no question about that. The Senate inquiry that was delivered a week or 10 days ago canvassed that. We're always open to looking at evidence about ways in which we can improve our most important public health program, I say that as Health Minister.

But across government, we're also doing unprecedented things in terms of our enforcement effort. We've lifted our enforcement at the border enormously. We're literally seizing billions of these illegal cigarettes at the border, and lots and lots of vapes as well.

And we're also working more cooperatively, I think, than happened in the past with state governments to lift their efforts on the ground. : You're listening to Radio National Breakfast. My guest is the Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler. A group of veterans will protest outside Parliament House today, laying down their service medals and accusing the government of disregard for veterans through its proposed cap on their allied health treatment.

Should the government have consulted on this savings measure before it was revealed in the budget? : I'm the son of a Vietnam veteran, the grandson of two World War Two veterans. I know how important veteran services are to people who've put on our uniform, and I know this is an issue deeply felt in the veteran’s community. I think the Minister is meeting with those veterans over the course of this morning.

But let's lay out what we're doing here. The first thing we're doing is a substantial increase to the fees paid to allied health professionals providing services to veterans, because we'd been hearing it was becoming really difficult for veterans to access those services because the price they were paying through the veterans program was lower than other programs.

We're changing that dynamic. Also, what we're doing is shifting from a position where veterans would have to go back to their GP every 12 visits to an allied health professional to get another referral to a $5,000 review point. Not 12 visits, but $5,000 review point.

That is a lot more than 12 visits. That might be several dozen visits. Now, if there is a clinical need beyond that $5,000, we've been quite clear, another referral would be made by their treating doctor.

Now, I get there's a lot of concern and anxiety about this. There is, to your question Sally, a consultation process open till the end of October. The Minister's been deeply engaged in that.

These changes aren't scheduled to take place until mid-next year, and we want to make sure that the changes operate in the best interests of veterans. : A couple of other issues. Pauline Hanson, One Nation leader, has this morning announced a policy to let Australians who are renting or paying mortgages to take three percentage points of the super guarantee and keep it as wages.

Is that a good plan? : It’s a terrible plan. It's an absolutely terrible plan. Occupational superannuation is one of the great reforms of our country over the last few decades.

It will provide security in retirement to millions and millions of Australians who otherwise would not have it. We had an experiment on this through COVID where people withdrew money from their super at the invitation of the Morrison Government. It's going to make a huge difference, a bad difference to their retirement income decades down the track, and we don't support this. : Your personal situation, you were described in the Fin Review over the weekend as Labor's leader-in-waiting whenever Anthony Albanese’s time as leader comes to an end.

Are you interested in the top job? : The only thing I think about in the morning when I'm getting ready for work, Sally, is what I can do to better support Australians in their health needs or with disability and with ageing. And that's a big job. It's a job I love and it's a job that's got more than enough challenge to occupy my time. : What do you think of the speculation? : This sort of story is always run in Australian media.

I've watched them for decades now. As I said, I don't think anyone in Labor is thinking about this. We've got a Prime Minister whom we all support very, very strongly and we've all got our own jobs to do.

I've said what mine is, and I'm glad to have it. : When are we likely to hear some more detail about the government's migration changes? : Again, there’s been commentary about that. We’re working on that as a Cabinet. I'm not going to go into the detail of that. : The next couple of weeks, or is it that soon? : I'm not going to put a day on it.

It's not my responsibility as a minister. But I can say that we're working very hard to make sure we get the settings absolutely right for Australia. : Just finally, it’s Women’s Health Week. The government says it knows there’s more to do to improve women’s health.

This year, we’ve seen federal and state politicians advocate for tighter controls on abortion. Is the federal government concerned by the sort of arguments that have been made when it comes to abortion access in Australia? : My position very much is one to improve choice and control and access and affordability for women around the health needs that they have, particularly as women, whether that's their reproductive health, going through menopause or whatever part of their life we're talking about.

These are debates largely happening at state level. They've crept into the Federal Parliament once or twice over the last few years, not with any particular good effect, I have to say. We've provided more support for women and their reproductive health, and we've got more to do in women's health.

I'm very proud of what we've done over the last few years. We've just started a Senate inquiry, though, into birth trauma, which impacts huge numbers of women with very significant effects. And I think that's a conversation that hasn't been as open as it should have been in Australia.

I hope that this Senate inquiry gives us some other ideas about other things we can do to support women in their health. : Mark Butler, thank you very much for coming in this morning. : Thanks, Sally. The Hon Mark Butler MP Smoking, vaping and tobacco Women's health Accessibility We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community.

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