RACGP and ACRRM. In 2020, the incoming AMA President Omar Khorshid claimed in an interview that the AMA could still advocate on behalf of all doctors, even though only 30% of doctors supported the AMA through membership. There are 15 officially recognised specialty medical Colleges in Australia. The AMA offers only the 11 largest out of the 15 representation on AMA Federal Council with the smaller Colleges currently ineligible for representation. The official Australian medical colleges that do not have representation within the AMA are Australasian College of Sport and Exercise Physicians, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, College of Intensive Care Medicine and the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. The AMA offers an Indigenous Medical Scholarship. It has called upon the Federal government to spend more on Indigenous Health in a number of areas. However, the AMA lobbied against equitable time-tiered Medicare consultation rebates for different specialists, which was proposed by the MBS Review Taskforce. Inability to access equitable time-tiered MBS rebates for Sport & Exercise Medicine specialists under Medicare is an important issue for Indigenous Australians. In 2020, the AMA President Tony Bartone criticized attendees at the Black Lives Matter rallies in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic for attending a large gathering, although AMA (WA) President Andrew Miller was supportive. The AMA formed an Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Committee (EIDC) in 2016, which produced an anti-racism statement in 2018 . The AMA held a Gender Equity Summit in 2019 and set targets to improve female representation on AMA Boards and Committees, aiming for >=40%. The AMA has only had two female Presidents in its history. In early 2020, less than 20% of members on AMA Federal Council were female. After elections in mid-2020, this had increased to 27% of members on Federal council being female. In 2017, 42% of doctors were female in Australia. History The British Medical Association (BMA), founded in England in 1832 to promote both the study of medicine and protection of the medical profession, established branches in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Victoria in 1879–80. The New South Wales branch, under its founding president Sir Arthur Renwick, replaced the earlier "Australian Medical Association" formed in Sydney by Dr William Bland in 1859. The BMA Branches of the Australian states and territories formally merged into the Australian Medical Association in 1962. Presidents Cecil Colville (1962–1964) Sir Angus Murray (1964–1967) Clarence Rieger