Session two of the National Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Safety Community of Practice was held on 28 January 2026, with presenters Andrea Kelly and Gary Rake. Andrea Kelly is the Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner, and Gary Rake is Deputy Commissioner Regulatory Operations with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC).
This was an important conversation exploring the tension between choice and risk, supporting self-determination for First Nations older people, and how we keep showing up in the operational and daily tasks of supporting cultural safety in our services when there is also bigger system change that needs to happen.
Seventy-five aged care stakeholders attended. The session explored how we can connect the small and the big picture – from in-person care to systemic change – to support CHSP providers to effectively embed cultural safety in their organisations.
As Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner, Andrea Kelly consults with older people and other stakeholders every day. She shared that cultural safety comes up all the time. Andrea’s report to Government in February 2025 shares stories from Elders and communities across the Australian continent – of older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people not being valued or respected across the system, including by assessors and the ACQSC. She heard consistently that lack of cultural safety is the primary deterrent for older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people not accessing aged care (p6).
In session two of this community of practice Andrea and Gary shared a conversation about what older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people say is needed to strengthen cultural safety and how the ACQSC is responding to this challenge. Participants reflected in small groups about how insights from Andrea and Gary relate their own role and context.
Exploring cultural safety from a policy perspective, Andrea highlighted the need to acknowledge that people have to decide for themselves what cultural safety is. To acknowledge this, we need to be aware that any Aboriginal person we come across is going to carry some trauma, and they are not necessarily going to tell us about it. Talking about it or not talking about it is their cultural safety. At the end of the day, it’s about respect for the older person.
Acknowledging in policy that older people themselves determine what is culturally safe for them, supports culturally safe practice in aged care.
Andrea and participants also discussed the need to take more time with older people. This applies in assessment and delivery of aged care services. Start without the clip board or laptop. Have a cup of tea, bring a cake. Build a connection and trust. Make a time to come back next week to allow the older person to start sharing stories and opening up to let you know what they need.
Gary shared that the finding from Andrea about the cultural safety of the ACQSC has landed powerfully, and that the ACQSC’s work needs to be grounded in trust and a more relational approach. Liz Hefren-Webb, the new Commissioner, has made First Nations Aged Care one of her top three priorities and the ACQSC is working on strengthening cultural safety in a range of ways.
One hundred per cent of evaluation respondents agreed the session reinforced their commitment to building cultural safety and driving cultural change, and that they would recommend this community of practice to a colleague. Participants valued the “honesty and openness of the discussion” and hearing “lived experiences and realities” shared by First Nations colleagues.
Thank you to our facilitators Meredith Elton (Social Futures) and Uncle Garry Kafoa, Minjungbal Elder (Momentum Collective), and to our organising group from Booroongen Djugun Ltd, Your Side, Momentum and Social Futures.
If you work in a CHSP service, we hope you can make for session three scheduled for 29 April 2026. Please register here.
