General Practitioner Payroll Tax

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:23): Supplementary to the Treasurer: were allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and dentists, eligible to apply for the amnesty which ended in November last year and, if not, why not?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:23): Because it hadn't been raised as an issue in the same way that it had been raised in the context of general practitioners. There are many, or there are a number, I should say—I can't give you a figure off the top of my head, but I am advised by RevenueSA that there are a number of dental practices in South Australia that have been paying payroll tax.

Of course, there are likely to be a number of smaller dental practices which are not paying payroll tax, either by virtue of the fact that they don't have enough taxable wages to require payroll tax to be paid or in the event—as has been represented to me by the industry representatives of dentists—that they might not have been aware of these payroll tax obligations. The request that they have made of me in the discussions that I have had with them is that they are not going to be subject to any retrospective payroll tax application.

I indicated to them in a meeting I had with them that, again, we have to be equitable in how we deal with this and it wouldn't be reasonable for me to provide, in effect, an amnesty for GPs up until 1 July while seeking to apply retrospective taxation obligations to dentists casting backwards, and I am in the process of formally communicating that to them to put their minds at ease about it.