General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA) and General Practice Supervision Australia (GPSA) are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the review and update of the National Terms and Conditions for the Employment of Registrars (NTCER) for the 2025-2026 period.

As the independent peaks representing the nation’s GP specialist registrars, supervisors and practice teams at the coalface of GP training, GPRA and GPSA play a vital role in ensuring all Australians have access to high quality primary healthcare now and into the future.

Through their continued focus on the NTCER’s ability to meet the needs of registrars and practices, the leadership of these national GP training peaks is instrumental in enhancing the appeal of both general practice as a specialty for junior doctors and the ongoing delivery of GP training for practices and supervisors.

Key outcomes of the 2024 NTCER review:

• Minimum billing cycle reduced to monthly

One of the most substantial changes incorporated into the updated NTCER is the reduction of the long-standing 13-weekly minimum billing cycle, with the calculation and payment of the registrar’s agreed percentage of billings now required at least monthly.

After broad consultation, this is considered a necessary change that will safeguard the future of specialist GP training. GPSA and GPRA will be working together in the coming months to guide practices through the change management process needed to efficiently implement this amendment.

• Base rate increase for GPT1/CGT1 registrars

With a view to increasing attraction to GP training by enhancing the perception of the specialty for hospital-based trainees, GPSA and GPRA have agreed to a historical uplift to the base rate for registrars in their first term of AGPT (GPT1/CGT1). 

This involves an overall increase of 7% additional to any increases by annual MBS indexation throughout 2025-2026, which will be applied as a 3.5% increase to the GPT1 base rate in 2025.1, and a further 3.5% on top of this in 2026.1.

• Contemporary and relevant NTCER

The updated NTCER now includes improved provisions for, and greater clarity regarding, the application of educational release, fatigue management, leave entitlements, dispute resolution, superannuation and termination. These improvements ensure the NTCER conditions align with relevant employment laws and training program requirements.

 

With their collective membership of approximately 30,000 participants in GP training, GPRA and GPSA’s joint aims of this review were to address the needs of current and future GP registrars and training practices by enhancing the two-way protections enshrined in the NTCER and improving the attractiveness of GP training.

These national peaks are confident that the outcomes achieved signal clearly to the prevocational doctor workforce that the general practice specialty is attractive and viable, strengthening the future of general practice in Australia through the genuine solutions focus of the many practice managers, practice owners, supervisors and GPs-in-training consulted throughout the 2024 NTCER review process.

Broader issues identified during the review included the need for the expansion of the NTCER’s application to include registrars on all GP Specialist training pathways, including those engaged under secondment arrangements like the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) or other pilot Single Employment Model (SEM) initiatives.

The newly-drafted agreement released for use in Semester 1 of 2025 (2025.1) has been formatted with extra schedules to address the non-AGPT contexts. These will be developed in consultation with training providers and other relevant agencies for release ahead of Semester 2 in 2025 (2025.2).

The successful finalisation of this process underscores the strong partnership between GPRA and GPSA, who have cross-checked the minimum terms and conditions with current state legislation, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 (Cth) to ensure the 2025-2026 NTCER aligns with the rapidly-changing employment law and taxation context.

ENDS