GP Payroll Tax

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:49): My question is to the minister for Health and Wellbeing. Will the GP payroll tax lead to the closing of GP clinics and, if so, what impact will that have on ramping? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: At the Select Committee on Health Services on 22 August, the President of the Australian Medical Association SA said the tax was reckless and shortsighted. It had caused clinics to increase fees with the risk some could be forced to close adding further stress to the public hospital system.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:49): Again, the arrangements that the Treasurer has negotiated with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners are much more generous than what is in place in other states. If you look at what is in place in New South Wales, you have to reach 80 or 90 per cent of bulk-billed services to get any exemption under those arrangements, compared to here, where all bulk-billed services are covered and exempted under those arrangements. In New South Wales there has been support for those measures from the AMA. I will leave it to others in terms of what has been happening here in South Australia, but we know that this is something that the RACGP have endorsed. We are supporting bulk-billing services in this state.

One of the critical issues that we do face in terms of primary care is not just those payment arrangements but also in terms of workforce. Availability of GP workforce is a critical factor not just here in South Australia but around the country as well. That is why we have also been working as health ministers in state, territory and federal governments in terms of creating an expedited pathway for general practitioners to be able to receive their registration and start working in Australia, particularly where they are coming from countries that have accreditation—for example, countries like the UK, where we know that their systems are safe and have appropriate training before they have moved to Australia.

We are going to be seeing, through the course of the remainder of this year, that expedited pathway for general practitioners coming on board. We believe that that will help to improve the workforce situation for general practitioners here in this state and around the country. We also need to see an increase in terms of training for doctors across the country as well. This is something that both myself and other state ministers have been advocating for. We need to see an increase in those commonwealth supported places for medicine, which have been capped for a very long time. With increased demand for health care, increased demand for all hospitals hiring extra doctors, increased demand for specialist services and, of course, increased demand for GPs, we need to see increased numbers of doctors being trained through our medical schools as well.