Health Minister Mark Butler will give a speech at the National Press Club outlining his vision for an integrated health system. This will likely form the basis for a dramatic reimagining of the NDIS.

When the PM initially announced that Butler would become both Health, Ageing and NDIS Minister after the election, it sounded like just another harmless MOG. That’s Canberra speak for ‘machinery of government’ change, like taking down one sign on a department and putting up another.

But Butler had a bigger plan: creating a single health system for every Australian that made sense.

He envisaged a future where it didn’t matter if you were over or under 65, you were eligable for the care you needed. The same for disability. It wouldn’t matter if you happened to be under nine, or if you had received a particular assessment of not, you would be eligable for exactly the same assistance.

It’s a radical vision: but one that makes a great deal of intellectual and financial sense.

Now NDIS Minister Senator Jenny McAllister is putting flesh on these bones. She’s announced a Quality Supports Program which will include three pilots totaling $45 million, one each for Supported Independent Living, support coordination and therapy providers.

She says “the successful providers for the SIL pilot include: Aruma, Northcott, and in Victoria, Yooralla”. These will inform the next stage of the rollout.

“Quality support makes a real and lasting difference to the lives of participants and their families,” McAllister says. “We want to make sure that the quality providers delivering these supports are viable for the long term.”

“NDIA’s work to support the market to deliver services that supports the diverse needs of people with disability.”

McAllister is very involved in this process. She promises the disability community will continue to play a key role in shaping these major reforms to the scheme, with a new NDIS Reform Advisory Committee to be appointed.

“This is a critical step in the reform process,” McAllister says. “This committee will be a voice to government that will help us fine tune reform of the NDIS as we go.”

We won’t get the full detail in Butler’s Press Club speech today, but we will get the broad-brush picture of where he’s heading. And make no mistake: Butler will get there.

Just look at the ambitious reforms he’s already ushered into the health portfolio, particularly the changes to pharmacy. This was a monolith with entrenched interests that people said couldn’t be altered. Butler hasn’t achieved everything he wants to, yet, but he’s well on the way.

That’s why today’s speech will be vital. It will outline the extent of the Minister’s ambition.

Last week a small, closed-door session was held as a precursor to today’s speech. A selection of over 40 representatives from the sector attended, including Aruma CEO Martin Laverty, Professor Tanya Buchanan from Dementia Australia, and Brad Swan from Life Without Barriers. It included business representatives (Andrew Thorburn from HammondCare), but also ensured advocates had a voice (like Dr Elizabeth Deveny from the Consumers Health Forum of Australia and Katrina Armstrong from Mental Health Carers Australia).

It’s exactly the sort of group you’d want to fly reform ideas past before releasing them publicly.

So stay tuned for today’s speech, which can be seen on the ABC and Sky.

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Mark Butler’s first real contact with the Health portfolio was back in 2009, when he became Parliamentary Secretary under then PM Kevin Rudd. But as a left-winger, from South Australia, it was under Julia Gillard that he prospered, becoming Mental Health and Aged Care Minister. He began thinking hard about the issues.

Butler knew his portfolios had serious problems. He also knew the party would have to find answers if it wanted to win and retain power. He also began slowly imagining a new way of creating an answer by bringing all the disparate areas of health together.

When Rudd’s government fell, Butler managed Anthony Albanese’s campaign for leadership. Bill Shorten won that time, but a personal friendship was formed that would pay political dividends for Butler later.

So when Labor was victorious in 2022, Butler swiftly settled into the Health and Aged Care portfolios. But at that time, of course, Bill Shorten was Disability Minister, and there was no way anybody could tell that particular former leader what to do.

Now things are different.

Butler’s road to change the portfolio is open.

He’s ambitious to change a system he thinks both can and needs to be improved. Butler is also backed by a PM who’s both a powerful friend. The government’s also confident of being in office for at least two terms.

This is long enough to mean that it has to come up with big solutions to the country’s problems, and also long enough to provide it with the time to bed down these changes.