LNP vows to permanently exempt Queensland GPs from payroll tax

The LNP has promised to keep patient fees down in Queensland by permanently abolishing payroll tax for GPs if elected to government next month.

Medical practices have always paid payroll tax on their employees, such as receptionists and nurses, but it never applied to general practitioners because they worked independently.

But legal proceedings in NSW and Victoria changed the interpretation of payroll tax and considered GPs to be employees, making them subject to the impost.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli announces the LNP’s GP payroll tax policy at a Windsor surgery on Sunday.Credit: Cameron Atfield

The Queensland government announced an amnesty last September that was due to run out on June 30 next year.

Labelling the payroll payment a “patient’s tax”, due to increased overheads being passed on to patients, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said the LNP would legislate to make GPs exempt.

That would mean amending the Payroll Tax Act of 1971 to add a specific exemption for GPs.

“If we don’t do this, Queenslanders will pay more to see a GP in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis,” Crisafulli said.

“It makes sense financially. It also makes sense socially. It’s about a long-term plan, and everything we’ve spoken about has assured Queenslanders that we have a focus on their immediate cost-of-living pressure.”

The policy won the immediate support of the Australian Medical Association Queensland, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the Primary Care Business Council.

AMA Queensland’s immediate past president, Maria Boulton, said it was one of many pre-election recommendations the organisation had made, and it would save patients between $6 and $30 per visit.

“Public hospitals and most private hospitals are exempt [from payroll tax] for a good reason, and that’s because health care needs to be universal, and it needs to be accessible,” she said.

“The issue with the current ruling is that it adds administrative burdens to the practices, and honestly, I would much rather work with a nurse than have to pay an accountant to sort through the administrative burden.”

But Treasurer Cameron Dick said “this whole palaver by the LNP” was designed to distract from Crisafulli’s refusal to release his tax policy.

“The reality of the matter is, the LNP need to say how much this is going to cost and how they’re going to pay for it,” he said.

“They’re promising all of these unfunded promises to Queenslanders, but they can’t say how they are going to pay.

“Until the LNP can tell Queenslanders how they’re going to pay for this, Queenslanders know one thing – the LNP will have to cut doctors and nurses from hospitals.”

Opposition treasury spokesman David Janetzki said exempting GPs from payroll tax would take about $100 million a year out of the state budget, which would be more than offset by the abandonment of the $24 billion Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro project.

A Queensland Productivity Commission would also return under the LNP, which Janetzki said would help keep government spending in check.

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