What’s going on with the GP training incentives?
Published on May 27, 2025
In the last few weeks, the Commonwealth has been consulting with sector stakeholders – the Colleges, GPSA, GPRA, AMA, RDAA, IGPTN and AIDA – about the three GP training incentives announced in the lead-up to the federal election:
- $30,000 GP training incentive
- parental leave
- study leave
These incentives will be available for trainees on AGPT, RVTS and RGTS pathways from 2026.1.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s consultation process, largely examining the practical implementation of these proposed levers for increased attraction to GP training, has provided GPSA with the opportunity to fly the flag for practices and supervisors while there is still time to embed our members’ perspective.
To maximise this opportunity, we have worked with GPRA under our MoU to present a joint response to the proposed structure and delivery of these incentives on behalf of all coalface participants in GP training, focusing on the importance of:
- transparency and clear communication between Colleges, Services Australia, trainees and training practices;
- keeping administration of these incentives simple (and not having too many fingers in the processes involved);
- aligning these incentives with AGPT policies (e.g. access to Category 1 study leave under the RACGP leave policy is limited by specific conditions);
- ensuring registrars don’t have too many hoops to jump through to access these incentive payments;
- ensuring registrars can reliably access these (pro rata) funds in an acceptable timeframe to minimise any negative impact on the practice-registrar relationship;
- uncoupling these incentives from the employment contract and training site payroll system to keep them out of payroll tax calculations; and
- minimising the administrative burden on practices.
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