The association has come out to clarify that it has not endorsed any political party in the sunshine state’s electoral race.
The AMAQ has distanced itself from letterbox flyers and text messages sent to voters in Queensland that bear the organisation’s logo and urge people to vote against Labor in the upcoming state election.
Both major parties have promised to legislate a payroll tax exemption for contractor GPs; the Liberal National Party made the commitment first, on 29 September, and Labor matched it on 9 October.
On 13 October, voters around the state received text messages saying their Labor MP had voted for a “patients tax” and urging them to “change the government” to stop the tax.
As reported in The Courier Mail, the texts contained a link to a website with an authorisation from LNP state director Ben Riley.
The AMAQ did not name the party involved in using its logo but said it had been “made aware of letterbox flyers and text messages that use our logo and appear to urge a vote against Labor”.
“AMA Queensland does not endorse any political party and we have not produced or distributed any election materials,” president Dr Nick Yim said.
The quotes attributed to AMAQ in the materials were pulled directly from the organisation’s website.
Dr Yim said that the AMAQ stood by its position on payroll tax and that it welcomed the bipartisan commitment to a legislated exemption.
“AMA Queensland was rightfully concerned about the impact a new interpretation of payroll tax would have on general practices, who were being hit with unexpected, backdated bills,” he said.
“This would have meant an end to bulk billing and would have forced many clinics to close.”
Queensland polls are now open, with the election proper scheduled for 26 October.
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Labor’s other health pledges this election cycle have included making the pharmacist prescribing trial permanent without an evaluation and building 50 bulk-billing clinics.
The LNP, on the other hand, has promised to deliver accountability for hospital wait times and boosting the number of frontline staff.
AMAQ declined to comment further.
