This has been a very busy year for the Australian Doctors Federation (ADF)!

When Dr Bruce Shepherd AM founded the organisation in the late 1980s, he knew that from time to time the large medical organisations (such as the AMA and the colleges) go “missing in action”, lacking courage and being compromised by conflicts of interest, particularly when heavily funded by government. 

In 2025, this has never been more the case! Our profession’s autonomy and independence, particularly in General Practice, have been under assault all year. Rather than take on the government and AHPRA head on, our AMA and colleges have been too busy spending their time and energy on internal disputes and social causes. 

The main areas of work for the ADF this year have been as follows:

  • AHPRA – we assisted AMPS in hosting a very successful conference on the Misdeeds of AHPRA. Despite being held on Election Day, it was over-subscribed.
  • Gender medicine – following on from our highly successful podcast with Helen Joyce, Dr Jillian Spencer and others in 2024, we continue to lobby politicians and medical groups about the harms “gender affirming care” is doing to children who suffer from gender dysphoria.
  • The GP Crisis – the 1 November 2025 changes to bulk-billing incentives are another nail in the coffin of Australian General Practice. We hosted an important podcast about this, followed by articles in the general practice press.
  • Medicare’s 40-year birthday occurred in late 2024. This year we did a 40-day special on LinkedIn about Medicare and what it means in the context of Australian Medicine.
  • Senior Doctors were also under threat by AHPRA, who threatened to introduce mandatory health checks. We hosted a podcast on this before other medical organisations pushed back. Thankfully AHPRA has backed down.

Our Let’s Talk Medicine series continues to be popular: in addition to the topics above, we have interviewed Dr Andrew Browning, Professor Luigi Fontana and Professor Ruby Lin. We strive to bring you the most interesting doctors and topics in Australian Medicine!

We encourage you all to consider renewing your membership or joining the ADF. Your membership is vital for generating ideas and providing feedback, as well as showing external decision-makers the support we have from within our profession when advocating for the survival of the medical profession in order to serve our patients and our nation.
Please also approach your colleagues and encourage them to join as well. Full details are on our website: https://ausdoctorsfederation.org.au/
Our medical executive work for free but we still need money for administration and our communications. Our membership fee is less than a cup of coffee per week! If you cannot support us financially, you can still follow us on YouTube and Spotify.


I wish you all a blessed Christmas and New Year!

A/Prof. Aniello Iannuzzi

Chair