Stop the sick tax

The government is imposing a new ‘sick tax’ on your general practice that means your GP will need to stop bulk billing you, increase fees or close the practice. 

 

State and territory governments may soon be may be imposing payroll tax on the earnings of tenant GPs, which means your GP will need to stop bulk billing you, increase fees or close the practice. 

After many years of Medicare being chronically underfunded, the payroll tax may push many general practices to the brink. A recent survey of GPs found that:  

  • Nearly one in five practices say they will be shutting their doors.  

  • 78% of practices will be forced to raise fees, meaning patients would be paying more for every GP consult.  

Everyone needs to be able to see their GP when they need to, regardless of their postcode or income. 

Help your local GP

You can help your local GP and their practice by writing to your local MP

  Download the letter template 

You can help your local GP and their practice by writing to your local MP and telling them to exempt your general practice from the payroll tax.

An exemption from this payroll tax obligation would make all the difference in keeping practices up and running and not having to charge patients more for each consultation. 

Choose the state/territory you live in to find contact details of your local MP

New South Wales 
Victoria 
Queensland 
South Australia 
Western Australia 
Tasmania 
Northern Territory 
Australian Capital Territory 

On 1 February, the RACGP placed full-page ads in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Telegraph, featuring an open letter addressed to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

To highlight the national significance of payroll tax, which affects all states and territories, and ahead of the upcoming NSW elections, the ads called for action by the NSW Government to exempt general practice earnings from payroll tax.

Read the ad’s full text here