GP Payroll Tax

Ms PRATT (Frome) (14:58): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing. What impact, if any, will the GP payroll tax have on the provision of home visits by local doctors? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms PRATT: On 28 August Dr Danny Byrne said on ABC radio that, and I quote, 'payroll tax was the nail in the coffin' and that he is no longer able to 'bulk bill a patient or do a home visit or go to a nursing home' due to the cost of running a practice and the impact of the GP payroll tax.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:58): I thank the member for her question. I certainly know Dr Byrne well, and I know he has a different view to the government and the Treasurer in relation to payroll tax.

Ms Pratt: Apparently they all do. You don't agree with any of the stakeholders.

The Hon. C.J. PICTON: As I have said, we have negotiated this agreement with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), which all general practitioners are members of and all general practitioners are part of. They are the peak body for general practice in this country, as the member may well know. I did hear comments from Dr Byrne on the radio in relation to his issues in terms of the voluntary assisted dying scheme that he raised, and I have followed them up with the relevant executive director of the Department for Health and Wellbeing. I understand that he had only been involved in one or two cases of the voluntary assisted dying scheme. The department had met with him and tried to work through those issues and were unable to reach agreement satisfactory to Dr Byrne.

I can report that we do have a number of doctors who are able to provide those services across the state and there is a growing number of doctors who have completed the training to be able to do that and we have a payment arrangement in place to make sure that we can support those doctors in doing their work. Certainly, it is up to individual doctors whether they want to participate in the voluntary assisted dying scheme or not. It is certainly up to Dr Byrne whether he would like to do that in the future or not, but certainly my door is always open to him in terms of concerns that he may raise.