The Minister for Health is a portfolio in the Government of Australia with the responsibility for national health policy. The current Minister for Health is Tanya Plibersek. The ministry is administered through the Department of Health and Ageing.

Under Section 51(ix) of the Australian Constitution, the Commonwealth Parliament had the power to "make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to Quarantine." This was the only area of public health in which the Commonwealth had authority at the time of Federation. The federal parliament did not use this power until the proclamation of the Quarantine Act 1908. The control of the administration of quarantine was under the administration of the Minister for Trade and Customs from 1908 until 1921. This Minister's responsibilities in health matters increased as the Australian Government took a greater role in the provision of public health services during the early 20th century, in particular after the First World War.

Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.

For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.

Mark Christopher Butler (born 8 July 1970) has been the Australian Labor Party representative for the electoral division of Port Adelaide in north-western Adelaide, South Australia since the 2007 federal election, succeeding prior Labor MP Rod Sawford.

In a 2009 Rudd Ministry reshuffle, Butler was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Health. On 14 September 2010, he was sworn in as Minister for Mental Health and Ageing in the Second Gillard Ministry.

On 12 September 2011 he was given the added responsibility of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Mental Health Reform.

On 14 December 2011, Butler's ministry was renamed Mental Health and Aged Care, and he became a member of Cabinet.

Butler was head of the left Labor faction in South Australia, until federal responsibilities saw him step back from the role to be replaced by David Gray, a staffer of Butler's, and an advisor to the Miscellaneous Workers Union.

Butler is a great-grandson and grandson respectively of conservative former Premiers Sir Richard B. Butler and Sir Richard L. Butler.

Nicola Louise Roxon (born 1 April 1967) is the Attorney-General of Australia. She has been a Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives since 1998, representing the Division of Gellibrand, in the inner-western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria.

Roxon was born in Sydney. She is the second of three daughters and the niece of the late Australian journalist and Sydney Push member Lillian Roxon. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish and migrated from Poland to Australia in 1937. Anglicising the family name from Ropschitz to Roxon, her grandfather worked as a GP in Gympie and Brisbane. Her mother Lesley trained as a pharmacist, while her father Jack was a microbiologist. He was a strong influence in her life and she was devastated by his death from cancer when she was 10 years old.

Roxon was educated at the Methodist Ladies' College in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, and the University of Melbourne. She ultimately came to the view that "governments have got a role to make sure they can help people in circumstances they can't control—either through their health failing or an accident". She has publicly stated that she is an atheist.

Peter Craig Dutton MP (born 18 November 1970), Australian politician, has been a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives since November 2001, representing the Division of Dickson, Queensland. At the 2001 federal election he defeated high profile Labor sitting member Cheryl Kernot.

He was raised in Brisbane, Queensland, and was educated at the Queensland Police Academy before becoming a Police officer. On leaving the Police in 1999 he became a businessman and completed a degree at the Queensland University of Technology.

After the 2004 federal election Dutton was appointed to the ministry. He was Minister for Workforce Participation from 2004 to 2006. In January 2006 he was appointed Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Revenue. Dutton successfully retained Dickson in the 2007 federal election with a majority of 0.26%, after an 8.76% swing to his rival Fiona McNamara.

In 2009, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) proposed to alter Dutton's electorate of Dickson in a way that would tip the political balance of the seat towards the Labor Party. Wary of losing his place in the House of Representatives, Dutton sought endorsement for the safe Liberal seat of McPherson. Despite the support of Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull, the retiring member for McPherson Margaret May, and several other party luminaries including former Prime Minister John Howard, Dutton was defeated by rival candidate Karen Andrews. The AEC's final redistribution cemented the erosion of the Liberal Party's position in Dickson, albeit less adversely than originally proposed. With no better option available to him, Dutton opted to recontest Dickson at the next election.