Radio interview with Minister Butler and Kaz, Triple M Hobart – 26 February 2025

KAZ, HOST: Minister, good morning. Thanks for your time. Now you've got some more news for us. What's happening in the world of health?
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: The State Health Minister, Jacquie Petrusma, with whom I have a really good, constructive relationship, and I've been talking over the last couple of weeks about the real challenge with Healthscope pulling out their maternity services. They've done it here in Hobart. I was on your equivalent station yesterday in Darwin, because they've done it in Darwin too, and really left a whole lot of families high and dry. Jacquie and I had a good discussion last week about what her plans were to make sure that families were not left without an option. On the front page of the mercury today, I see that she's been in good discussions with the leadership of Calvary, and they're going to dip in and make sure they expand their capacity. At the Royal, they're going to have to do that as well. We're announcing today at the will be putting $6 million into that program, so that both the state government and if the state government wants to provide money to Calvary, they are able to make the upgrades to their maternity suites to cater for the additional demand that's going to come from Healthscope cutting their maternity services.
 
KAZ: So the services will still be cut?
 
BUTLER: Healthscope is pulling out, and those mums have to go somewhere. Both the state government and Calvary are going to expand their operations to accommodate the mums who otherwise would have gone to the Healthscope facility, and we'll put money in to allow them to do that.
 
KAZ: Will that push any other services out of Calvary that aren't as topical and as glossy as a maternity ward, so that we're going to lose other services in those hospitals?
 
BUTLER: I think that's really a question for Calvary, and discussions are happening between the state government and Calvary. Calvary is a very big, sophisticated operation, one of the biggest across the country. They're not for profit, so they really plough all their money back into services. Unlike some of the private operators, like Healthscope for example, is owned by big global private equity firms. A lot of the money gets sort of pulled back into those areas, rather than into services. But I'm really delighted the Tasmanian Government, particularly Minister Petrusma, has acted so swiftly. She's talking with Calvary, we had a really good, constructive discussion. I asked her, “What can we do to help you make sure there are no mums left high and dry here, and they're able to get a really good service?” And it's important recalling that these families are paid a lot of hard-earned cash for their private health insurance. To get maternity cover, you have to have a gold product, and to be just left high and dry by this company pulling their services in Hobart and Darwin, I know will have been a source of real distress to those mums and dads who are looking forward to what is going to be one of the most joyful moments of their lives. And I congratulate Jacquie Petrusma for acting as swiftly as she has, and I'm really glad we're able to put some money behind it.
 
KAZ: Are Mother and Baby units going to be increased and more accessible?
 
BUTLER: That's really a question for Jacquie, you should get her on and ask her the details about that. We're a funder, we don't operate the system. But it's a really good relationship the two governments have to deliver what is a really important service for Tasmania.
 
RHEA, HOST: Workforce shortages is a big issue in Tassie for the health system, with the election coming up, are there plans to get more workers from the mainland here?
 
BUTLER: One of the announcements we made on Sunday in Launceston was to expand bulk billing support for all Australians, not just to pensioners and concession card holders. Tripling the bulk billing incentive for pensioners and concession card holders has had a big impact here in Hobart, and bulk billing rates for that group has gone up very substantially. But for adults without a concession card, they're still struggling to find a bulk billing doctor, and so that's why so much of the biggest ever investment in Medicare that we announced on Sunday was targeted at that.
 
We also know we need more doctors, we need more advanced nurses, we need more endorsed midwives. So there's a lot of funding for additional medical school places, additional training places for young GPs, and also scholarships for advanced nurses, nurse practitioners and midwives. We're short midwives right across the country, not just here, and that's driving a lot of the challenges that maternity services are having, particularly outside of the very big cities.
 
RHEA: On the Medicare staff, the Opposition has come up with its own election promise for Medicare just days after Labor’s was announced. What do you think of their proposal?
 
BUTLER: Actually, it was minutes, I think actually, Peter Dutton might have torn a hamstring getting out to do a press conference. I think we were still at our event, the Prime Minister and I in Launceston, when he agreed to match it. I think you just got to be sceptical about Peter Dutton on this stuff. He tried to abolish bulk billing when he was Health Minister in 2014 and tried to rip $50 billion out of hospitals, which would have devastated a state like Tasmania. And really importantly, he's never owned up to that, he's never said that was a terrible mistake, when everyone knows the challenge we have in bulk billing is because he froze the funding to Medicare for six years. If you freeze doctors’ income while their costs are going up, there's going to be pressure on bulk billing. But for us, bulk billing is the beating heart of Medicare. That's how we created it 41 years ago as a Labor government, back under Bob Hawke, and we're determined to turn that around. And I know how important that is in Tasmania.
 
KAZ: Minister, I'm in the middle of a huge life changing fight of my life for my ageing parents. Now I'll just take a moment and compose myself. I'm not asking for any solutions or answers at the moment. I just want you to know that the services for our elderly population do not work. From the start of trying to keep them safe in their homes, it's not working. They are waiting too long. They are taking years to get a walker or some rails or some safe steps. They are getting glossy magazines and brochures with carrots continuously waved in front of them to keep them safe at home, and it's not working. There are too many people they're talking to. There are too many departments that are talking, there are too many brochures showing pictures that doesn't work. There are too many of our family members banished to dark, airless corners of public hospitals for weeks and months and years, waiting for spaces in aged care and emergency respite. There is no such thing as emergency respite unless you pre-plan it. You have to have an ACAT, an assessment which there are thousands of elderly people on waiting lists. It's not working. It's not fair, and I am pleading with you, as an average Moonah mum with elderly parents to fix it, because we are watching you. I am pleading for your help. My mum and dad are pleading for your help, but most importantly, the next generation of kids, and my son, are watching how we are treating our elderly relatives, our nans and pops, and our ma’s and pa’s, and they need some help, and it needs to be better.
 
BUTLER: Kaz, thanks for sharing. I talk to people in your situation all the time. I mean, it's such a distressing time to see your parents really become so dependent and finding it hard to get the services they need and deserve. This is the generation that built this community, worked hard, paid their taxes, raised their families for decades, and deserve better support in their later years. All I can say is that we're doing everything we can to build a better aged care system for a much larger group. We've got to do two things at once, make the system better, but make it a lot bigger.
 
KAZ: We are falling broken and worn out into the arms of waiting aged care homes, which are doing an amazing job. There's some fabulous staff in residential care homes across Tasmania, but people are broken, and it needs to be fixed.
 
BUTLER: Thanks for sharing that, Kaz.
 
RHEA: Mark Butler, Federal Minister for Health and aged care. Thanks so much for your time on Triple M Breakfast with Kaz and Tubes.