I rise to speak in support of the Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner and Other Measures) Bill 2026. As a Mutthi Mutthi Wamba Wamba woman, this bill speaks to something at the heart of who we are as First Nations people and our responsibility to elders. Our elders are more than older members of our communities; they are our teachers, our storytellers, our knowledge holders and our connections to the generations that came before us. They carry language, culture, family history and lived experience that cannot be found in a textbook or a government report. When an elder passes, we lose knowledge that can never be replaced. That is why aged care matters.

It's not simply about services; it is about dignity, and it is about respect. And it is about ensuring that the people who have given so much to their families, to their communities and to this country receive the care that they deserve. Every older Australian deserves care that sees them, knows them and treats them with dignity. But we also know that dignity looks different for different people. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, dignity in aged care means being able to maintain a connection to culture, family and country. It means being cared for by people who understand who you are, understand where you come from and understand the experiences that have shaped your life. This bill takes an important step towards delivering that outcome. At its heart is the establishment of Australia's first permanent independent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Commissioner. This was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Today, this bill, if it's successfully passed through the Senate, will deliver on that commitment.

The case for this role, in my mind, is really clear. We know Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to need aged-care support at a younger age than the broader population. We know many experience poorer health outcomes and carry a greater burden of chronic illness. We also know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians access aged-care services at lower rates. That really should be something that concerns all of us because, when people do not engage with the aged-care system, it's rarely because they don't need the support. More often it is because they do not believe that the system understands them.

The truth is that, for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, aged care has historically felt like a system built somewhere else by someone else for someone else. Too many elders have been asked to leave their communities in order to access care. Too many have felt isolated from family and culture. Too many have carried experiences that have made it difficult to trust institutions. I think it's important that we are really honest about that history. Many elders alive today lived through government policies of exclusion and control. Many experienced racism in institutions that were supposed to help them. Many members of the stolen generations are now reaching the age where they need aged-care support. For some of those elders, walking into an institution is not a neutral experience. It can bring back memories of a time when governments decided where Aboriginal people could live, where they could work and who they could see. It can bring back memories of being separated from family, community and culture. If we want Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to trust the aged-care system, we have to acknowledge that history. We have to recognise that cultural safety is not a box-ticking exercise. It's not an optional extra; it's fundamental to delivering good care. It's good policy. When people feel understood, respected and safe, they're far more likely to engage with the services available to them. This commissioner is an important step in rebuilding that trust within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

The commissioner will be an independent advocate for our elders. They will listen directly to communities, they will advise government on how services can better meet the needs of First Nations people, they will help identify barriers that prevent people accessing support and they will provide an important mechanism for ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives are heard inside the aged-care system itself. Importantly, this role is not simply symbolic, and it's important that roles like this aren't just symbolic. The commissioner will sit within the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, with an independent statutory function. That means that they will have direct connection to the parts of the system responsible for oversight, accountability and improvement. It means that their advocacy can drive practical change. The commissioner will support better cultural capability across the sector. They will promote culturally safe care, they will help more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations become aged-care providers and they will help strengthen the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged-care workforce.

All of these things matter, because we know that care often works best when it's delivered by the people who understand the communities that they serve. We know it works best when services are designed around people rather than forcing people to fit around systems. We know it works best when elders can remain connected to family, language, culture and country.

I want to acknowledge the work that has already been done to help shape this role. The inaugural Interim First Nations Aged Care Commissioner, Andrea Kelly, travelled extensively across Australia and met with communities, providers and older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She listened carefully. She heard people's stories. She heard what was working and what was not. Most importantly, she heard what people wanted this role in particular to become. That work laid the foundations for the permanent commissioner that this bill establishes. I also want to acknowledge interim commissioner Jodi Cassar, who has continued that engagement and consultation with communities across the country. The success of this role will depend on the trust it builds with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and community. That trust can only be built through genuine engagement and genuine listening. This legislation recognises that.

As someone who spends a great deal of time in communities across Mallee and Nicholls, I hear regularly from older Australians about the challenges they face in accessing services. Whether in Mildura, Swan Hill, Kerang, Cohuna, Echuca, Rochester, Shepparton or many of the smaller communities right across regional Victoria, people tell me they want the same things. They want to remain where they belong. They want to stay close to family. They want to remain connected to friends, family and community. And they want to continue living independently for as long as possible. For Aboriginal elders, that often means remaining on country. For others, it means staying on the farm they've worked on all their lives, remaining in the township where they raised their children or continuing to be part of the community that they helped build.

These are not unreasonable expectations. In fact, they are exactly what most of us would want for ourselves. A good aged-care system should support those choices. It should not create barriers to them. That challenge is often even greater in regional Australia. Distance matters. Workforce shortages matter. Access to services matters. When there is only one provider available or when care is delivered hundreds of kilometres from family and community, the impacts are felt deeply by older people and those people who care for them. That is why it is so important that regional voices continue to inform aged-care policy. This commissioner will help ensure those voices are heard.

This bill also contains a number of practical measures that strengthen the operation of the broader aged-care system. Some of these amendments are technical in nature, but they are nevertheless important. This bill strengthens existing consumer protections. It makes clear the obligations on providers to refund contributions and fees that have been overcharged or overpaid. That is a really important safeguard. Older Australians and their families deserve confidence that the system is operating fairly. This bill also includes amendments that support the ongoing implementation of the new Aged Care Act.

As anyone involved in major reform knows, legislation of this scale often requires technical improvements once implementation begins. It is entirely normal. The purpose of those changes is not to alter the direction of the reform but to ensure that reforms operate as intended. The government amendments before the chamber today are a good example of that at work. These amendments establish an additional review pathway for certain assessment and prioritisation decisions. That might sound technical, but it has a very practical purpose. Not every older Australian's circumstances fit neatly into an assessment tool. Not every person's aged-care needs can be fully captured through a standard process. Sometimes circumstances are more complicated. Sometimes individual situations are exceptional. When that happens, there needs to be a mechanism that allows those decisions to be reviewed. The amendments provide that pathway. Where assessment organisations believe a person's circumstances warrant further consideration, there will be an ability to escalate those decisions for review. That is an entirely sensible approach. It recognises that good systems need consistency but that they also need flexibility. Most importantly, it recognises that the purpose of the system is to serve people. The measure will provide an additional safeguard for older Australians with complex circumstances and help ensure people receive support that reflects their genuine needs.

I also want to acknowledge an aspect of the bill that is particularly important for regional communities, and that is the amendments relating to local government. On the surface, this may appear to be a technical matter; in reality, it is deeply important for many communities across regional Australia. Local councils play a critical role in delivering services that support older Australians. They provide practical assistance. They connect people with services. They help older residents remain independent and engaged in their communities. In many regional areas, councils deliver these services because there is simply nobody else to do so. Across Mallee and Nicholls, local councils are often the organisations that hold communities together. They know the people that they serve, they understand local needs and they are often the first point of contact when somebody requires support. This legislation recognises that reality. By addressing the issues around responsible person arrangements and bringing local government into line with state and territory arrangements, these amendments remove unnecessary administrative burdens and provide greater certainty to councils. That is a welcome and practical reform. Ultimately, we want councils to be focused on delivering services, not navigating avoidable bureaucracy. For many regional communities, maintaining those services can mean the difference between an older person remaining in their community or being forced to relocate somewhere else to access care.

At the centre of all of this is a simple principle: growing older should not mean losing your dignity, growing older should not mean losing your voice and growing older should not mean losing connection to the people that you love. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that includes maintaining connection to culture, community and country. For regional Australians it includes maintaining connection to the towns, the neighbourhoods and the communities they've spent a lifetime helping to build. This bill supports those goals. It establishes a permanent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aged-care commissioner, it strengthens consumer protections, it improves assessment processes, it supports local governments and it continues the work of building an aged-care system that is safer, fairer and more responsive to the people it serves.

I want to finish by reflecting on something. I understand that One Nation are likely to put forward an amendment to this bill that is entirely unnecessary. The bill that we've got before us today helps the government to deliver on a key recommendation from the royal commission, and we are not in the business of declining recommendations from royal commissions. Never mind that this bill, which will help the government deliver for older First Nations Australians, is the right thing to do; it is good policy. One Nation need to reconsider an amendment that they might put forward to this bill. I commend the bill to the Senate.