Every few years, GP Supervision Australia and GP Registrars Australia hammer out a new set of conditions for the employment of GP registrars. Here’s what’s new.
GP registrars will receive an “historical” pay rise under the latest National Terms and Conditions for the Employment of GP Registrars (NTCER) agreement as part of the latest push to attract junior doctors to the profession.
Independent peaks General Practice Supervision Australia (GPSA) and General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA) announced today that they have signed the 2025-2026 edition of the agreement, which functions similarly to a registered award.
It’s hoped that the 7% increase in base rate pay – which will be rolled out as two 3.5% raises at the beginning of the 2025 and 2026 training years – will help shift the perception that moving to general practice training means a pay cut.
“[Junior doctors] have a perception barrier when they come out of hospitals, and see a base rate as if that’s what they’re actually earning,” GPSA CEO Carla Taylor told The Medical Republic.
“But in reality, there are very few registrars that only ever receive the base rate, because they get a billings percentage and that brings them closer in line with their supervisors and their colleagues in the practice.”
The base rate rise will only apply to pay in the first term of GP training, but Ms Taylor said that both GPSA and GPRA made a commitment to advocate for better pay top-ups outside of that.
The other substantial change is a new minimum billing cycle of one month, reduced from 13 weeks.
Ms Taylor said the previously longstanding 13-week billing cycle predated automatic payment systems and was no longer industry standard.
“It’s significant in terms of process for people, and it’s something that GPRA and GPSA will work on together to help practices negotiate,” she said.
GPRA president Dr Karyn Matterson called the change “monumental” and told TMR that it was “a great outcome for registrars”.
Other changes include new and clarified rules on educational release, fatigue management, leave entitlements and superannuation.
“We’ve tackled the whole agreement almost line by line, as opposed to making little tiny corrections here and there, and in doing so we’ve gone through and made sure it’s easier to read,” Ms Taylor said.
“It’s offering more certainty for people, because one thing … that’s really important to trainees and the practices that employ them is educational release and how the out-of-practice time is accommodated by the practice, without overburdening it or short-changing the registrar.
“We’ve just made it really explicit as to how that can be worked.”
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NTCER arrangements do not apply to registrars in community-controlled health organisations, Australian Defence Force registrars or registrars working under a single employer model.
According to GPRA and GPSA, a revised version of the agreement set for release in semester two of 2025 will be formatted with extra schedules to address some non-Australian GP Training pathway contexts.
