Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Payroll tax

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:44): My question is to the Minister for Health. The federal Labor health minister has urged Victoria to review its unfair health tax, saying that the Premier should ‘listen closely to general practice organisations like the college of GPs’. The college has warned that the government’s unfair health tax will increase patient co-payment fees, stop bulk-billing or force GPs to close their doors. Will the government follow the advice of the federal Labor minister and abolish the unfair health tax?

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:45): Once again I welcome the question from the opposition, because it is an opportunity to try and clear up once and for all that what we are talking about here is payroll tax, which has been in place for a long, long time, and the way in which payroll tax is applied has not changed. However, what I can tell you is that we have had the pleasure of working with the RACGP on the delivery of our election commitment, our $32 million investment to make sure that we are supporting more junior doctors to take up the general practice scholarship. You talked about the RACGP, so I am being entirely relevant, because I want to talk about something else the RACGP –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the question asked very clearly whether the government would follow the advice of the federal Labor minister and abolish the tax.

The SPEAKER: A point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. The Minister for Health was being relevant to the question that was asked.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: As I was saying, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ Anita Muñoz here in Victoria had this to say in relation to our $32 million commitment:

This program is a meaningful acknowledgment that general practice registrars, when they go into the community, do experience a drop in their income. That can be up to a $50,000 reduction in income between one registrar type and the other …

Dr Muñoz said that she hoped other states would follow Victoria’s lead in making it easier and more financially viable to choose the general practice specialty here in this state. The issues with general practice, as the federal health minister well knows –

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, on the issue of relevance, without restating the question, could I ask you to bring the minister back to actually addressing the question, please.

The SPEAKER: The minister was being relevant to the question.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: As the federal health minister well knows, because state health ministers are certainly letting him know, he has inherited a system – we have given him that largess – from the failed Liberal–Nationals government that destroyed Medicare. They destroyed Medicare. They had a freeze on rebates.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is just debating the question.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister was giving some context, but I do ask the minister to come back to the answer.

Mary-Anne THOMAS: Thank you very much, Speaker. What I am trying to explain for the benefit of the opposition – and I recognise I have done it before – is that there are many longstanding issues associated with general practice in this country, and they specifically come from 10 years of neglect by the Liberal federal government when the Medicare rebate did not keep pace with the true cost of delivering medical services.

Our government has done more than any other state or territory to support general practice, and we have done that through the establishment of 29 priority primary care centres. We have done that with our $32 million to support more GPs. We have done that through our community pharmacy pilot project to make primary care more readily accessible for more Victorians. So once again, I welcome the question from the opposition, because it is an opportunity –

Peter Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, you have given the minister a long time to come to answering the question, which she has not done. I would ask you to bring her back to actually answering the question that was asked.

The SPEAKER: I cannot compel the minister to answer the question in the way that you would like, Leader of the Nationals, but she is being relevant to the question that was asked. The minister has concluded her answer.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:49): The Queensland Labor government have now withdrawn their unfair health tax. Why won’t the Victorian Labor government do the same?

Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Health Infrastructure, Minister for Ambulance Services) (14:49): Let us be clear: this is about the application of payroll tax in this state, which applies to doctors in the same way it applies to a range of other health professionals, indeed professionals right across the state. We will continue to work with the RACGP, with the AMA and with other stakeholders to support primary care here in this state. We are focused on the patients, not the politics, and that is where we will stay. That will remain our focus, and my focus as health minister will always be on delivering the very best care to all Victorians.