General Practitioner Payroll Tax

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Premier. Will the government repeal the GP payroll tax grab? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: This morning on ABC radio the President of the AMA SA said:

We see payroll tax as an imposition on access to GP care. If you make it more difficult for doctors to practise, they'll either have to put a fee, which discourages patients from attending, or they'll stop offering services. Those patients then delay care and end up in EDs, which costs the system more than the revenue raised.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:27): I am very happy to answer this line of questioning once again, because the Leader of the Opposition persists in misleading this issue, just as the Liberals were caught out by the Electoral Commissioner misleading the community during a by-election. Did they apologise? Of course not. It is easier for them to perpetuate the mistruth, including in this chamber.

The things that have changed are the massive increases in incentives for GPs to provide bulk-billing services from the commonwealth government, and the state government legislating an exemption from payroll tax for the first time for general practitioners for the wages earned providing bulk-billed services. That is what has changed. This furphy, this rubbish that is peddled by those opposite that there has been the imposition of a new liability, is plain wrong.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: You don't have to take my word for it; the Electoral Commissioner has ruled accordingly. They try their hardest during a by-election campaign in an effort to win votes by peddling lies and mistruths, and they get caught out by a statutory officer. What does the Leader of the Opposition do? He laughs about it—laughs about it: caught publicly misleading the community as a political leader, and he is chortling away in here. If we were in the position of the Leader of the Opposition, the last thing he would be doing, after the week that he is having, is chortling.

At least the front bench isn't in hiding today like they were yesterday. At least they are not in hiding today. We even had the remarkable circumstance of shadow ministers putting out press releases and being invited by the media to do an interview and rejecting it—not available. Not available. It's like that bloke on a football field who sees a melee going on, runs in, tries to have a quick jab and then runs off again: it's cowardice.

So for those opposite who are so focused on peddling mistruths and infighting—showing South Australians the proud history of the South Australian Liberal Party and being an absolute rabble unfit either to be elected to this place or to be a party of government—continue on. You will get called out, not just by this government but by independent statutory officers like the Electoral Commissioner.