Queensland’s opposition claims visits to the doctor would be cheaper under an LNP government, but Labor said they haven’t explained how they will pay to make GPs exempt from payroll tax.
The shadow treasurer, David Janetzki, announced on Sunday that the party would make general practitioners a special category under the payroll tax act.
“The LNP’s plan will save bulk billing, and it will keep GPs open, and it will stop Labor’s patient tax,” the party’s health spokesperson Ros Bates said.
“If bulk billing collapses in GPs, the health system itself will collapse”.
The opposition said they would pay for the policy by not building the planned gigantic Pioneer Burdekin pumped hydro scheme in central Queensland, which they estimate would cost $24bn.
The state treasurer, Cameron Dick, said it was “more nonsense from David Crisafulli”.
“He’s mixing capital expenditure up with operating expenditure. That’s just the truth. That doesn’t work in government,” Dick said.
The opposition estimates the policy would cost the budget about $100m in uncollected revenue a year.
The federal court sparked a nation-wide backlash from doctors in 2022 after overruling a longstanding exemption from payroll tax for some general practitioners.
The Queensland Labor government was the first in the country to impose an amnesty, which expires in July next year. Clinics were supposed to use the delay to switch to an alternative financial structure, in order to avoid paying the tax.
Former Australian Medical Association Queensland president Maria Boulton joined LNP leadership to praise the policy on Sunday.
Boulton, whose two-year term ended in May, said the Labor approach would impose administrative burden on clinics worth up to $50,000 a year. Paying the tax might cost a patient up to $30 a visit, she said.
“It’s immoral for people to have to pay a patient tax on their healthcare. We know that public hospitals and most private hospitals are exempt for a good reason, and that’s because healthcare needs to be universal and it needs to be accessible,” Boulton said.
Under the government’s policy, clinics could avoid paying the tax by requiring patients to pay general practitioner directly. The doctor would then pay a fee for using the clinic’s facilities – essentially as an independent contractor.
Other states have also moved to exempt their GP clinics from the tax.
The NSW government included a tax rebate in this year’s budget and waived historic tax liability. South Australia and Victoria offer exemptions for clinics offering bulk-billed services.
