General Practitioner Payroll Tax

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:17): My question is to the Treasurer. Have any GP practices previously paid payroll tax on contractor GPs in South Australia and, if so, how many?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:17): In the course of this series of discussions that I had with the royal college going back some months we sought some information from RevenueSA about what the current situation was with practices meeting their tax obligations. As members would readily imagine, we are all familiar with GP practices, but there are many other medical practices that we also have here in South Australia. What I'm advised is that there are many, many medical practices which are paying payroll tax. They are registered for—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: On the contractor GPs.

The SPEAKER: Order! Treasurer.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you. If I get the opportunity to answer the question that has been asked, the member for Colton might find it informative. There are many medical practices which are registered for GP—for payroll tax with—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: GP tax. You nearly said it yourself. You said no new taxes.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer has the call. The member for Hartley is warned.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: He's providing a fulsome understanding to the house why he's not on that front bench.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta is warned. The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: There are many medical practices which are registered for payroll tax, which are declaring wages subject to paying payroll tax and are paying payroll tax. That also extends to general practice medical practices. The advice I have from RevenueSA is that there are more than 100 GP practices which are registered for and paying payroll taxes. This drives the consideration that I have as Treasurer and that RevenueSA has that not only do we have a responsibility under legislation to be levying the taxes that the parliament has agreed to, we also have to do it fairly and equitably. When we have a group of medical practices which are already registered for, declaring wages and paying payroll tax, and we also have—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: Now you sound like Rob Lucas.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: You signed up to him, and look where he got you.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Not only do we have medical practices, both general practice and non-general practice, which are registered for payroll tax but are also paying payroll tax, we've got a responsibility to make sure that while we have already made, and have been prepared to make, significant concessions to general practitioners to give them plenty of time, plenty of notice and plenty of assistance to come into compliance, we cannot continue on a two-stream taxation regime in perpetuity.

We can't continue to foster an environment where we've got many South Australians—many South Australian practices, many South Australian workers—who are obliged to pay payroll tax and continue to pay their payroll tax obligations while another group isn't. We need to make sure that we've got a consistent application of this as soon as is reasonably practicable, and that is what I have been working with the royal college towards.

I welcome the more recent involvement of the AMA in this issue because they, of course, also have a view. They don't just represent general practitioners; they represent many other medical practitioners, many of whom are also paying payroll tax. Of course, you would expect that they would understand that, if we are going to apply rules, it's got to be done fairly and consistently.