Minister for Health and Aged Care, press conference – 5 March 2025

BAXTER HEALTHCARE GENERAL MANAGER, BRENDAN CUMMINS: Thank you for joining us at Baxter for a very exciting day. Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which we meet. I’d now like to hand over to our local Member, Andrew Charlton.
 
MEMBER FOR PARRAMATTA, DR ANDREW CHARLTON MP: Thanks very much Brendan and thanks to everyone in the Baxter community who is here today. Just a few weeks ago, I had a tour of this fantastic facility. The announcement that the Health Minister is here to make today is a really important announcement for three reasons. Firstly, this is about backing Australian manufacturing and industry and what a great example of western Sydney knowhow and advanced manufacturing Baxter is. Secondly, this is about creating jobs in our local area. Baxter employs nearly 1,500 people and the announcement we make today will build on that and create more for the future. Thirdly, this announcement is about strengthening Australia’s healthcare system, making sure sovereign capability for critical inputs to our hospitals and healthcare facilities. Thank you very much Minister for being here, we really appreciate you coming to Baxter in the electorate of Parramatta and we really appreciate the support of Baxter.
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: Thanks Andrew,  thanks Brendan for welcoming me here again to this amazing facility. Baxter has been in this part of Sydney for 50 years, providing jobs, and I acknowledge Brendan that this is almost as long as your beloved St Kilda Football Club has been waiting to win another premiership. Hopefully the Saints will be waiting another 50 years and hopefully this facility will be here for another 50 years. The announcement that we have made today in partnership with the company really goes a long way to securing these jobs, the almost 1,500 jobs for a very long time into the future.  That, in and of itself, is good reason to do it. But as Health Minister, another good reason to do it, this investment by the Commonwealth is to secure a critical input to the healthcare system. Last year, our healthcare system was impacted by some pretty severe global shortages and interruptions to manufacturing for IV fluids. Beyond here, most of us took IV fluid supply for granted. People working hard in public hospitals, private hospitals, primary care, thinking that you’d always be able to reach back and there would be a bag there for you to use. Suddenly, there was a question mark over whether those bags would be there. And we’ve all been reminded what a critical part of our healthcare system this facility in Toongabbie is. We rely very heavily upon you to work hard to keep these production lines running at full pace to try to ensure that no hospital is going without an IV bag. 
 
We’ve also been keen to ensure that through this use by doctors, nurses and hospital operators that we weren’t wasting bags. I’ve been really pleased to hear via jurisdictions and private hospitals when we’ve met with them in the last few weeks that supply right now is in a pretty good place.
 
Brendan and I sat down last year and we talked about how we could guarantee sovereign capability here in Australia, how we could free ourselves of the vagaries of the global market, of things like the hurricane that hit North Carolina last year.
 
I’m delighted that through the hard work of the Commonwealth and the company, that we are able to announce a $40 million investment. $20 million from the company and $20 million the Commonwealth that will add 20 million units of capability here. This will guarantee the sovereign supply for Australia and also some export potential, to New Zealand and potentially other markets as well. As Andrew said, it’s about more jobs for western Sydney, but it’s also about a critical supply of this health product. I want to thank Brendan and the company for the way in which you have engaged with the Commonwealth Government over the last several months to land this deal. But I also want to thank all of you for the work you do every day. I know you’ve been running this factory really hard over the last 12 months or so to do everything possible to ensure as many bags as possible are going to our hospitals and our primary care facilities. It’s a terrific day for this facility, it underpins what I’m sure will be a very bright future for the area that Andrew represents in the Federal Parliament. Thank you very much and I’ll hand back to you Brendan.
 
CUMMINS: Thank you Minister. As you say, an incredibly proud day for Baxter to celebrate this landmark co-investment to expand our medical manufacturing here. Baxter’s $20 million investment builds on our proud 50 year history of manufacturing here and we will now be able to produce an even stronger supply of Australian IV fluid here. This significant investment allows us to expand our operations and continue to meet the future needs of Australians. I want to express my gratitude to Minister Butler and the Labor Government for their vision, commitment and support of this project. We look forward to working closely with you as we embark on this expansion.
 
Today I would also like to celebrate the entire Baxter team and the work you do to step up for Australian patients. You have done an extraordinary job over the last 12 months and we are incredibly proud of the work you have done. This advanced manufacturing facility in western Sydney is a testament to your work and expertise. I thank you wholeheartedly for your dedication and commitment to the Australian healthcare system. I’d also like to acknowledge the state government, the department of health and the IV fluids taskforce for their work, support and coordination during the IV fluids shortage. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to the Member for Parramatta, Dr Andrew Charlton, for your support of the work that we do.  Your advocacy is appreciated. Together we are building a stronger and more resilient healthcare system for Australia, and I thank you again for joining us on what is a very exciting day for Baxter.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
BUTLER: Brendan might want to correct me if I get some of these figures wrong, but we measure in Australia that demand is in the order of 60 million units per year. After this expansion is completed, the capacity of this plant will be 80 million units, which means that we more than cover Australian demand. As I said in my introductory remarks, it gives this plant some export potential also – to New Zealand, which is an important market for the Toongabbie plant. But the critical thing for Australia is that this will more than cover our annual demand and will allow for population growth.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
BUTLER: I think what you will see is that those key healthcare providers, hospitals, private hospitals, will start to value the secure supply that is available from Australia.  The company might want to add something about this but we’re very confident that healthcare providers will start to move to sourcing supply from this facility.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)

BUTLER: Baxter put on a new production line late last year. I think it was in August last year that the Government secured supply of an additional 22 million units. I said in my introductory remarks that we are monitoring the adequacy of that supply and in our latest discussions with jurisdictions and private hospitals we are pretty satisfied with those supply arrangements. Obviously, this is a big investment for the company and Commonwealth to make so after it was first raised with us as a possibility by the company last year, our officials have worked very hard with the company to come to an arrangement that was in the interests of taxpayers but also good for the company.
 
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
 
BUTLER: We’re monitoring it very closely. We now have arrangements in place where I’m confident to ensure that where there is an interruption to supply and the possibility of shortages, we’re in a position to have the earliest possible notice of that and move to put in place arrangements to cover off that possibility. As you know, IV fluids are not a notifiable medicine, we’ve had to put in place bespoke arrangements to ensure we have early notification of any shortages from healthcare providers. Those arrangements remain in place and they have served the country well.