When he was appointed Minister ysterday, Mark Butler said exactly what you’d expect. “Australia’s systems of care and support are world-leading and trail-blazing.”

But then he said something surprising and revealing. His task, he insisted, was crystal clear: to “secure the future of the NDIS.”

Dissect those words - ‘secure the future’. That phrase wasn’t chosen by accident. Butler’s got one of the finest minds in parliament. The current explosive growth trajectory of the NDIS represents an existential threat to the scheme’s very existence. He knows that someone has to wrestle he scheme back under control if it’s going to survive.

Butler’s saying he’s going to make this his mission.

He comes to the task with a strong pedigree.

He was Minister for Mental Health and Ageing (2010–2013), Social Inclusion (2011–2013), and Housing and Homelessness (2013) back in the Rudd/Gillard years. During this period he also took on the difficult task of reforming mental healthcare. Since 2022, of course, he’s held the hugely complex Health and Aged Care portfolios. He’s proven a competent performer dealing with difficult issues, like dealing with pharmacists.

In fact, Medicines Australia CEO Elizabeth de Somer says she “welcomes the reappointment of Minister Butler, noting his deep understanding of the complexities of the health portfolio including the PBS and the medicines industry”.

It’s a far more genuine tribute than other ministers (such as Richard Marles) are likely to receive from industry representatives in their portfolios.

Much more significant than this, though, is his ability to get on with the PM. The two are close and trust one another. This will mean a huge deal when it comes to ensuring the NDIS becomes what it was always supposed to be . . .

And this is where Butler’s personal history with the PM will prove such an advantage. He’s worked closely with Anthony Albanese, a factional ally, since before his election to parliament.

Although Butler’s from the ‘soft’ left (rather than Albanese’s ‘hard’ left), he ran the now PM’s first campaign to lead the party against Bill Shorten. Yet despite being a political player in his own right, Butler’s always been seen as competent, intelligent and, perhaps more importantly, straight.

It’s this personal characteristic - almost unique in tough Labor politics - that really demonstrates what he brings to the portfolio.

Few people reach Butler’s current position without making a host of enemies (recent descriptions of Richard Marles as a “factional assassin” come to mind here). Butler, however, has avoided making such mistakes.

He comes from a political background, although his father was not involved in politics. Both Butler’s grandfather and great-grandfather were conservative premiers of South Australia. After involvement with Labor politics at university, graduating with arts/law degrees, Butler quickly became first a union official and before entering parliament in the Ruddslide election of 2007.

He backed Julia Gillard’s putsch against Kevin Rudd, but since then has been an Albanese man - seemingly without ambition except to run important ministries where he has, perhaps surprisingly, actually taken on the challenge of accomplishing change.

He will have his work cut out for him as he takes over the disability ministry. The fact that he occupies the health and aged care portfolios means he will be able to deal with the underlying factors across the sector, instead of being limited to the NDIS itself.

Assisting him is Jenny McAllister. She’s also a person with a strong political background within Labor, having been the party’s National President (preceding Butler’s appointment to that role).

Her role, again, will be critical, but the NSW Senator deserves more space than is available here.

We’ll be bringing you much more information on the political changes as they begin rolling their way through the NDIS in the months to come.