Portfolio — 26 March 2026

The Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Minister for Health and Ageing and Deputy Leader of the House, Mr Butler, had a high-volume day on 26–27 March 2026, combining a significant primary care investment in the ACT with substantive PBS announcements in the House — both streams carrying the same underlying message: reducing cost and access barriers to health services.

On the primary care side, Mr Butler released a $24.3 million ACT package anchored by a $10.5 million Bulk Billing GP Attraction Initiative, funding three new bulk-billing GP clinics planned to open by 30 June 2026 [TA-260327-health-3827b34fffda]. The three sites — Macquarie General Practice in Gungahlin, Next Practice Deakin in South Tuggeranong, and Ochre Health in Molonglo — are positioned to lift GP supply across growth corridors in the territory where access pressure has been acute [TA-260327-health-3827b34fffda].

The package also resolved an immediate service continuity problem: ForHealth Group will take over the Tuggeranong Family Medical Centre following the collapse of Interchange Health Co-op, restoring primary care access for approximately 5,000 patients with complex health needs who had been left without a provider [TA-260327-health-3827b34fffda]. The Tuggeranong transition is operationally distinct from the new-clinic stream — it addresses a discrete failure event — but both arms of the announcement share a structural purpose: extending bulk-billing access in a jurisdiction with demonstrable workforce and access shortfalls.

In the House during question time, Mr Butler detailed two new PBS listings for myeloma — a disease affecting more than 20,000 Australians with a five-year survival rate of 60 per cent [TA-260326-house-acd3ee5310f1:s165]. Darzalex, listed in November 2025 as a first-line treatment, replaced a $440,000 course with PBS pricing; Elrexfio was flagged for listing the following week for relapsed myeloma, capping patient cost at a $25 co-payment rather than $5,000 per script [TA-260326-house-acd3ee5310f1:s165].

The Minister stated that approximately 1,300 to 1,400 myeloma patients annually will access Darzalex under PBS, closing a treatment gap that had persisted on the PBS for 12 years [TA-260326-house-acd3ee5310f1:s165]. Mr Butler also confirmed active negotiations with state governments to deliver CAR-T cell therapy Carvykti through the public hospital system following a PBAC recommendation — an arrangement that requires Commonwealth–state co-design and represents a more complex delivery pathway than standard PBS listings.

The continuity sentence in the parliamentary segment places today's myeloma listings within a broader portfolio pattern building on expanded PBS immunotherapy listings announced on 28 February [TA-260326-house-acd3ee5310f1:s165].

The cross-stream read for the day is coherent: Mr Butler used both a media release and the chamber to advance a consistent cost-reduction frame across primary care (bulk-billing infrastructure) and specialist pharmaceuticals (PBS price reform). The ACT primary care package addresses workforce attraction and service failure simultaneously; the PBS announcements target catastrophic out-of-pocket cost in the cancer space.

The Carvykti negotiation with states adds a forward-looking thread — one that will require monitoring as Commonwealth–state talks develop.