Thursday, 22 February 2024

Northern Victoria Region

Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (12:45): (699) My question is for the Treasurer, and I ask him to remove the destructive health tax, as it will severely impact regional GP clinics and communities. I met with a local doctor in Bendigo recently who said that this tax will force many GPs to close their practices or increase fees to cover the tax. In many rural areas of northern Victoria there is only one practice in a town. If they close, health services in these communities will disappear. This tax will increase the cost of seeing a doctor when people are already struggling with rising living costs. It will drive more patients to overwhelmed emergency departments and mean that some will not even go to a doctor, making matters even worse. The industry has warned that this tax will put many practices out of business, end bulk-billing and increase the cost of seeing a doctor by almost 30 per cent. It is a retrospective tax without any thresholds, with thousands of GPs facing payroll tax changes for the first time. I am not surprised to read news reports today that medical clinics are considering legal action, and on behalf of my constituent I ask the Treasurer to immediately scrap this destructive tax.