Thursday, 31 August 2023

Payroll tax

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:17): I want to make some comments today about the large number of doctors that came to Parliament yesterday and met with the Leader of the Opposition John Pesutto, Georgie Crozier and others from the opposition. It is clear that the government’s GP tax, their health tax, is actually going to have a huge impact. It is going to cut bulk-billing. It is going to make primary care services, principally GP services, less accessible. It is going to push up charges for local people as GPs are forced to pay more and more of this payroll tax.

The government’s absurd statements – and I saw in question time yesterday in the lower house the Minister for Health’s absurd statement that nothing has changed – are simply a fabrication. The truth of the matter is the government is relentlessly hounding and hunting for revenue, and they have put the State Revenue Office on the job. They have let it off the leash. They have changed the SRO advice on its website, firstly last year and then most recently just a few weeks ago, and it is clear that they are hounding and chasing health professionals, doctors, dentists – the whole group. This is going to force up healthcare costs and cut bulk-billing. It is a dumb tax and a tax on health. It is a wrong tax, and it is being done with a sleight of hand. It is really a very foolish step that the health minister, the Premier and the Treasurer in this state are taking.