Australia news live: ‘stronger Quad means stronger Australia’ Albanese says after meeting with summit leaders

Health minister wants prosecutions for illegal vape sellers ‘pretty soon’

Just circling back to the conversation with the federal health minister, Mark Butler, he was asked whether stores that will continue to sell vapes despite a ban will face prosecution.

Butler:

It’s quite clear that some convenience and tobacconist stores are breaking the law … we are going to have to switch to a far more assertive approach. There are very serious penalties in the federal laws now, up to seven years in prison and fines of $2m. And pretty soon I want to see prosecutions starting to be prepared by authorities.

Mark Butler says the demand for mental health care has been growing over the last two decades and the government “wants to go upstream and look at some of the impacts that social media and other things like that are having” on young people which are considered to be the source of this demand.

And that’s a wrap.

National GP shortage showing possible ‘green shoots of recovery’, Butler says

Butler says he is “desperately worried” about a shortage of GPs working within the Australian health system.

One in two medical graduates would choose general practice, and it is now one in seven.

The minister says 20% more medical students chose general practice in 2024 than last year.

So there may be some green shoots of recovery.

He says the government has been plugging the gaps by bringing health professionals from overseas, but cabinet has also directed all health ministers to come up with a “GP attraction strategy” to sure up the “backbone of our healthcare system”.

Health minister flags prosecution of illegal vape sellers under ‘far more assertive’ enforcement

Government open to expanding access to IVF, Butler says

Butler says the government is open to recommendations in a new report that would expand access to procedures that would help families, including LGBTQ+ couples who may be discriminated against under existing rules, to conceive children, but would not be drawn about what action the government may take.

As I said, my starting position is that … if we can give more families the joy of having children, that’s a great place to start, but we will work through these recommendations carefully, as I imagine your viewers would expect me to.

Butler rules out requiring hospitals to provide abortion services

Butler says the government wants women “right across Australia, particularly in regional communities to have equitable and safe access to all health services, including termination services”.

Butler was asked whether the federal government will make it a requirement for public hospitals to provide access to abortion in their funding arrangements. Asked again, specifically, whether the government would seek to do this, he responded:

We have no plans to do that.

The minister said that state and territory ministers “are accountable to their electorates for the way they run hospital systems”.

Butler says Senate report on women’s healthcare tells “pretty shameful story”

Butler is now asked about a Senate inquiry report that found women going through menopause have been let down by a system where doctors are not properly trained to advise them.

In particular, it found that trainee doctors only receive one hour training on menopause – a finding which Butler says is “shocking”.

This is one of two really important inquiry Senate reports the Senate has delivered to us around women’s health, and together they tell a pretty shameful story about women not being taken seriously in the health system about their symptoms.

Butler says the government has made “some modest investment” in the last budget to “lift the capability of GPs to women in peri-menopause and menopause” but adds that “there is much more to do in this area”.

I’m working with the minister for women, Katy Gallagher, Ged Kearney is leading work with the women’s health sector to examine these reports and look at what we can do frankly to better support women.

Asked what he would say to doctors who are being asked to “gate keep” access to saline, Mark Butler says the government is “working to remedy this situation” and that health professionals need to be “judicious” as the situation stabilises.

Separately, Butler has announced wider access for the shingles vaccine.

Shoring up saline bag supply part of ‘broader question about sovereign capability’, Butler says

Butler says the government has only been able to secure “a few million more bags than normal” over the next six months, but says “we will have more than we need.”

We are looking at longer term security of supply as well. For example, our major manufacturer here in Australia will opening an additional production line in coming weeks. I’ve been down to have a look at that over the last few weeks as well, but we need to think in the more medium to long term about how we can avoid getting into this position again, and it is part of a broader question about our sovereign capability in the area of medicines and medical technology.

Mark Butler says health system will have ‘more than enough’ saline bags amid supply shortage

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, has sought to reassure Australians that the health system will have “more than enough” saline bags, even as hospitals are still being advised to be cautious while the problems are worked out.

It snuck under the radar of state health care systems, whether it was state governments or hospitals, because there would always be a surplus of saline bags.

When there became a supply interruption, there was no obligation to notify of that shortage which there is for medicines, for example, so we are now treating IV fluid as a medicine, but also not much coordination between different parts of the system.

Butler added that some state governments were doing better than others, who were coming up short.

That’s why we’ve pooled all the jurisdictions together, private hospital operators, primary care part of the system through the [Australian Medical Association] to make sure that very regularly we have a much better line of sight, frankly, than the system did have before.

Albanese says ‘a stronger Quad means a stronger Australia’ in summit address

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, will speak to ABC Insiders host David Speers on Sunday morning.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has also done the rounds, speaking to Sky News ahead of this week’s release of monthly inflation figures. Other Sky appearances included the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, and the shadow environment minister, Jonathon Duniam.

We will bring you all the latest as it happens.

Good Morning