Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026

Mr GEORGANAS (Adelaide) (11:56): I rise to speak on the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill. It's a very important bill. How we care for our elders says a great deal about who we are as a nation.

In years to come, we'll be judged by how we've looked after our elderly people—the people who have basically built the foundations of this nation for us to prosper and to live the lives that we do. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, elders hold a particularly special and sacred place. Many of them, as we heard when the member for Lingiari spoke earlier, have gone through traumas.

Many of them are a part of the stolen generations. You can imagine what they have been through in their lives, so the least that we could offer is peace of mind in their twilight years. And that's what this bill is all about.

It's about ensuring that people who have gone through so much and whose communities are in some the remotest parts of Australia, some of the most socioeconomically downtrodden areas, could have a huge impact on their lives when they need either an aged-care facility or when they need home care. You can just imagine someone in Central Australia getting to a point in their lives where they require care and they're bundled up and sent off, perhaps, to Adelaide, as is the case in many cases.

They've left their community, their entire families, the way of life they have known for their entire life to go into this completely different set-up with alien culture, language and everything. It would be one of the most traumatic experiences for an elderly person that I can think of. That's why this bill is so important.

The legislation before us today is so important because every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deserves to age with dignity, with respect and with access to care that understands and values who they are. For many First Nation elders, quality of life is inseparable from culture, identity and belonging. And yet, for too long, too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced an aged-care system that was not always designed for them.

I'm certain it was not designed with Aboriginal people in mind, when you look back many years ago—that is the reality. They've been disconnected from the system. They've struggled to access the cultural environment they require in their aged care.

We heard, again, from the member for Lingiari—I keep on referring to her speech—who spoke about our multicultural communities, and it's very similar. When you reach a certain age, if English is your second language, as it is for many of our people in remote communities, it is the first thing that you start to forget. Those language skills get less and less.

You can imagine being in a place where you can't communicate, in a culture that's completely different from everything that you've known and where you're not adequately understood. That must change, and it is changing, and I'm very pleased to see that it is, but it must change for our First Nations people and for our multicultural communities as well. This bill represents that important step forward.

The Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026 delivers on a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. It establishes a permanent, independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged-care commissioner within the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

This is not merely an administrative reform. It's ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders have a dedicated and enduring voice within the aged-care system. It's a voice that can advocate directly for their needs and aspirations, a voice that can engage with the community and the sector, and a voice that can support service providers, monitor cultural safety initiatives, strengthen workforce development and ensure that aged-care services evolve in partnership with those they are intended to serve.

Most importantly, it sends a clear message that the voices of First Nations elders matter, that their experiences matter and that their cultural identity must be respected at every stage of life. The creation of this role has not just emerged in isolation. It's been informed by extensive consultation across Australia.

The Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner engaged with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders, their families, their communities, community controlled organisations, aged-care providers and all of the peak bodies. The message from those consultations was pretty clear: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want an aged-care system that understands them and is not imposed from above but informed by the people whose lives it affects.

Today is about more than just legislation. It's about recognising the profound contribution that First Nations elders continue to make to Australia. It's about acknowledging that cultural knowledge is a national treasure.

It's about ensuring that future generations can continue to learn from those who have carried that knowledge throughout their lives. When an elder loses connection to culture, community or country, I think we all lose something, each and every one of us. But, when an elder is supported to remain connected with their community and respected and empowered, then communities are stronger, culture is preserved, and we all become stronger together.

That is what this legislation seeks to achieve, and that's why it deserves the support of this House. At its core, caring for First Nations elders is about far more than just meeting their daily care needs of diet, food, bedding et cetera. It's about ensuring that people can live their later years with dignity and purpose and a continued connection to the things that have shaped their lives.

As I said earlier, you can imagine, perhaps in many cases where English is not the first language, that it would be traumatic to come from a remote community to be thrown into an aged-care facility, hundreds of miles away, that caters for no cultural differences. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, they're deeply connected to their family, to their culture, to their community, to their traditions and to their country.

That's why culturally safe and culturally grounded aged-care services are so essential. That is precisely why the establishment of a permanent, independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged-care commissioner is such an important reform. I'd like to congratulate the minister, who's here in the chamber with us, for this bold move.

It shows that we're taking the steps to ensure these things happen. In my electorate of Adelaide, we already have examples of what culturally responsive aged care can achieve. In my electorate, the Aboriginal Community Services residential aged-care facility in Davoren Park, a suburb in the western suburbs, is Adelaide's only Aboriginal-specific residential aged-care home.

The work undertaken there demonstrates what happens when care is built around the culture and around the needs that Aboriginal people have. Staff are trained to provide culturally sensitive and responsive care that helps reconnect elders to their heritage, to their community and to their identity. The lifestyle programs offered there are much more than just recreational activities.

They provide opportunities for elders to maintain and celebrate cultural practices that have been passed down through many generations. Residents participate in activities such as beading jewellery, sculpturing native clay animals, cooking kangaroo tail over an open fire and baking traditional damper. That is what it means to cater for someone's culture and for someone's traditions, which makes those people feel connected, as they have been most of their lives, to their communities.

These activities are powerful reminders that culture does not end when a person enters an aged-care facility or requires aged-care services. Indeed, for many elders, maintaining those cultural connections become even more important than ever. The Davoren Park facility also hosts an intergenerational playgroup that brings together the elders and young First Nations children, and they integrate.

This is a beautiful example of culture and stories being shared, protected and passed on. It allows the knowledge, stories, language and tradition to flow between the generations. It ensures that elders remain respected and that they are respected teachers and leaders within their communities as they have been all their lives.

It helps safeguard culture for future generations. These initiatives remind us that aged care is not only about supporting elders; it's also about protecting that cultural heritage that they carry. Another organisation in my electorate making an incredible difference in Adelaide is the late Sister Janet Mead's Adelaide Day Centre for Homeless Persons, which works tirelessly to support vulnerable South Australians, including many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are ageing and, for whatever reason, are homeless but still need that care.

They need that care. As we get older, things change. You may have been used to doing it tough on the streets, but as you age someone has to step in and take care, and they do an incredible job.

Organisations like the day centre and Aboriginal Community Services stand to benefit enormously from this bill and from the support and guidance of a dedicated First Nations aged-care commissioner. Having a commissioner will mean that we'll have the ability to advocate for the needs and aspirations of elderly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, engage directly with the communities, support service providers and also monitor the cultural safety and workforce programs.

Importantly, they'll help organisations build capacity, strengthen culturally appropriate care practices and implement workforce initiatives that better reflect communities' needs. The commissioner will serve as a bridge between communities and providers. They'll help ensure that services remain informed by lived experience and community voices.

They'll strengthen that relationship between the aged-care providers and the people they exist to serve, because the best aged-care outcomes are achieved when services are built not for communities but with communities together. And that is exactly what this legislation seeks to achieve. At the end of the day, this bill is about people.

It's about the elders who have spent their lives caring for their families and strengthening their communities, many in adverse situations. Many of these people were part of the stolen generation, who are now ageing rapidly and require these facilities. It hasn't been easy for these people.

Let's see if we can give them some peace of mind in their twilight years. That is what this is about. The legislation recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders are not simply recipients of care.

They are custodians of culture. They are living links between past, present and future, and we, as Australians, should respect that. They are an important part of this nation, and every story they share, every language they preserve, every lesson they pass on strengthens not only their communities but our Australian shared cultural heritage.

When we protect and support our elders, we protect and support that continuation of culture itself. The establishment of this independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner sends a very powerful message. It says that First Nations' voices matter, it says that cultural safety matters and it says that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people deserve aged-care services that reflect their needs, their aspirations and their identity.

The bill helps ensure that they can age with that dignity that we spoke about earlier, remain connected to the people and places they love and receive care that truly understands who they are. Today we take an important step towards ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders are not only cared for but respected, heard, connected and celebrated for the immeasurable contribution they've made to our country.

I commend the bill and, once again, congratulate the minister, who's here in the chamber with us, for this bill and for bringing it to this House.