The Latest Breaking News from Mark Butler

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler warns Medicare is in the worst shape of its 40-year history and a comprehensive revamp is needed to make the sector viable.

Australia scrapped its airline mask mandates in September, but global health officials are encouraging passengers to reconsider as the latest Omicron subvariant spreads rapidly.

On Thursday, the government's new COVID-19 testing requirements for travellers coming into Australia from China, Hong Kong and Macau began and family and friends in Melbourne and Sydney were keenly awaiting their arrival.

Mark Butler says the government has to keep in line with international expectations as well as Australian health officials, after going against formal advice not to require pre-flight COVID tests on travellers from China.

As COVID-19 cases in China surge and countries, including Australia, impose new travel rules, Chinese Australians are weighing up whether to visit relatives and loved ones.

From midnight, Australia joins a growing number of countries imposing new COVID-19 travel restrictions on people arriving from China, but experts say it is neither fair nor necessary.

Australia’s chief medical officer advised there was not ‘sufficient public health rationale’ for new travel rules.

Australia's chief medical officer explicitly advised the Albanese government not to introduce mandatory COVID-19 testing on travellers from China, a newly released letter shows.

Governments cite lack of information from Beijing on variants as they express concerns over a new wave of infections.