Just over a year after the federal AMA reunited with the AMA WA, it is now facing a much larger, more Queensland-shaped absence.
Queensland’s AMA has officially cut ties with the federal organisation, pledging to chart “a new, independent course” as a wholly separate entity.
It follows what the AMAQ calls “the exhaustion of an extensive three-year negotiation” with the federal body.
“We know that for many businesses over the past couple years, the operating environment has changed, and we know that at the state AMA level, members are most important,” AMAQ president Dr Nick Yim told The Medical Republic.
“That includes member servicing and engagement with the members.
“Queensland is a very, very big state ranging from the Gold Coast all the way to the Cape and out west to the borders of Northern Territory … this is something that we do need to ensure that we have enough additional funds to maintain our viability to service the needs of our membership.”
Dr Yim, a GP in Hervey Bay, said the council and committees would deepen their focus on federal health policy to ensure it meets the needs of Queensland doctors and patients.
As the state with the highest rural population, Queensland’s doctor workforce is somewhat unique.
In the western half of the state, for instance, most GP practices are operated by the state health system. GPs and rural generalists are employed by Queensland Health under a single employer model.
AMAQ will retain its union partnership with the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation Queensland, but members will lose free access to the AMA fees list, the Medical Journal of Australia and the federal careers service from 1 January 2026.
“We’ve listened to our members,” Dr Yim said.
“We have asked them, ‘what is the value proposition? What do they value in the membership?’, so our goal is to continue to deliver events.
“At AMA Queensland, we deliver events such as junior doctor conference, careers expo and member networking events, but we would like to expand to allow more doctors to attend and also to offer discounted pricing or even reduce fees to allow more attendance.”
The association’s events, workplace relations and membership teams will continue with business as usual.
When asked whether membership fees would go down as a result of leaving the federation, Dr Yim said that AMAQ would be listening to members but also had to ensure viability.
The federal AMA called AMAQ’s move “disappointing” and said it would be exploring options for Queensland doctors who wanted to maintain representation at a federal level.
“There is not a Queensland-only Medicare, or a Queensland-only private health system, aged care system, national regulation or legislative framework,” federal AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen said.
“These are national programs, and our role is to take the voices of doctors from right around the country and amplify them in Canberra where decisions are made.”
Dr McMullen is herself a Queensland GP and AMAQ member, and said the federal organisation would remain open to any future conjoint membership arrangement should Queensland decide to come back into the fold.
Related
The AMA has a somewhat unique fee model; unlike the RACGP, which is a national organisation with state and territory-level branches, the AMA is (mostly) a federation of separate state-based organisations.
Where doctors pay a fee to the national RACGP and it divvies out funding for each state and territory, the AMA money flows in exactly the opposite way.
When doctors join the AMA, the state AMA collects fees for both the state organisation and the federal organisation. The state then forwards the federal dues to the federal branch.
It’s a small difference, but it does mean that the national body can exert less control over each state and territory organisation.
There have long been rumblings that some of the states feel their contribution is too high.
Several years ago, the AMA Victoria briefly introduced an “associate member” category that paid for state representation only.
Tensions came to a head in February 2024, when the AMA WA was kicked out of the federation after withholding its full dues from the federal AMA for more than 12 months.
At the time, the AMA WA claimed it had been contributing around 18% of the total AMA federal funds, despite accounting for just 10% of total membership numbers.
After around six months of negotiations, AMA WA rejoined the federation in October 2024.
Without the full contribution from the AMA WA in both 2022 and 2023, though, the AMA federal reported small losses.
AMA WA had approximately 5000 members; AMAQ has slightly fewer, at around 4500.
During the period of time that the AMA WA was expelled, the federal AMA put through a constitutional change which allowed it to establish state-based branches for the first time.
AMAs in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia were opposed to this change, but the Tasmania and Northern Territory AMAs have opted to be subsumed by the federal body as branches.
The AMA ACT is also expected to vote to become a federal branch this week.
This article was updated at 4:30pm on 2 December to correct details on AMAQ membership numbers.
