A stoush between the SA State government and the Royal College of GPs over the tax doctors pay has ended in a deal. There had been a push to charge GPs payroll tax, but today the government announced they won't have to pay the charge on wages earned while bulk billing. But it isn't a complete back-flip – time spent on privately billed consultations will still attract the tax.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Walking towards compromise on unpopular changes to GP payroll tax.
00:07 A new exemption for GPs on payroll tax for those consultations on bulk build services.
00:14 Although it's not the full exemption we would have liked, this is a really reasonable middle ground.
00:18 From July, some doctors were going to be forced to pay payroll tax for the first time.
00:23 Instead, it'll be applicable to time spent on privately built consultations.
00:28 What this does actually is protect the viability of many practices that otherwise would have been closing their doors from the 1st of July when this tax comes in.
00:36 The College has been campaigning against the changes for months, which stem from a NSW Court decision in 2022.
00:43 Doctors argued it would make GP visits more expensive and push more patients into overcrowded emergency departments.
00:50 It's been a really stressful time for general practice the last few months with the concerns about paying payroll tax.
00:56 We know how important GPs are across our system.
00:59 We know that good primary care means that people can stay out of hospital and stay well in the community.
01:05 There is a warning though, private consultation costs could rise despite the exemption on bulk build services.
01:12 Now bulk building is protected and the increased fees for private patients won't need to compensate for bulk build things.
01:17 So the increase will be a lot, lot less, but there will still be some increase for private patients.
01:21 The opposition says more needed to be done.
01:24 The amount of money we're talking here in the scheme of the whole budget is tiny, it's minuscule.
01:29 And the Labor Party should just come to the table, exempt the entire GP process from this.
01:36 I like to think that we've got a good solution now which puts the focus on making sure that GP practices can remain viable.
01:45 Laws to formalise the exemption will be part of the State Budget Bill, set to be tabled next month.
01:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]