Indigenous doctors unveil plan to drive reform

The Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) has launched a five-year national roadmap designed to strengthen First Nations medical leadership, expand workforce supports, and advance structural reforms across Australia’s health system.

AIDA unveiled its Strategic Plan at James Cook University’s new Yeinie Building in Cairns. The launch brought together figures from across AIDA’s history and present-day network, including the organisation’s first Chief Executive Officer, Professor Ngiare Brown, and its first President, Dr Lewis Peachey, alongside current medical students, practising doctors, and sector partners.

Key Points

Five-year plan launched

The evening was framed as both an intimate milestone for AIDA’s 600 members and a strategic opportunity to present the organisation’s long-term vision to health dignitaries.

Proceedings commenced with a cultural Welcome to Country delivered by the Traditional Custodians of the Cairns region, the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people. The event programme also aligned with AIDA Board business during its scheduled June sitting in Cairns, underscoring the formal governance context for the plan’s release.

“Holding space for and prioritising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values and wisdom is essential for the transformative change needed to enhance training and health outcomes for our peoples,” Dr O’Donoghue said.

“This plan ensures that our students and doctors are supported to thrive, lead, and transform systems from within.”

AIDA has positioned the plan within a broader vision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living long, healthy, and thriving lives shaped by sovereignty, cultures, and Country. With the organisation approaching its 30th anniversary next year, the plan sets out priorities intended to balance national advocacy with sustained member engagement.

Strategic goals and priorities

The Strategic Plan outlines five core goals intended to guide organisational actions and partnerships over the next five years. AIDA linked these goals to its purpose of contributing to equitable health and life outcomes, and to the cultural wellbeing of Indigenous people, by working toward population parity of Indigenous medical students and doctors and supporting a culturally safe healthcare system.

• Culturally Grounded Membership: Fostering a culturally safe, inclusive home where member voices, cultural authority, and leadership are celebrated and elevated
• Thriving Medical Workforce: Embedding Indigenous values into medical education and training to support the growing workforce of over 1,000 Indigenous doctors currently operating within the health system
• Health System Reforms: Driving structural and policy changes through advocacy, strategic partnerships, and expanding AIDA’s Cultural Safety Training Program
• Steadfast Governance: Establishing clear cultural governance protocols and partnering with Elders to provide ongoing cultural guidance across operations
• Sustainable Systems & Technology: Investing in modern, fit-for-purpose infrastructure that honours Indigenous Data Sovereignty while building resilient, diversified funding streams

AIDA framed the workforce agenda around embedding Indigenous values across medical education and training pipelines, paired with practical supports to sustain and grow the cohort of over 1,000 Indigenous doctors working within the health system.

The association also identified its Cultural Safety Training Program as a vehicle for system reform, positioning it alongside advocacy and partnerships to influence structures and policy.

Internally, AIDA outlined intentions to further codify cultural governance and to formalise partnerships with Elders for ongoing guidance. The plan also emphasised strengthening a culturally grounded membership environment, where leadership and cultural authority are recognised and elevated.

Governance, visibility and next steps

AIDA’s leadership linked the plan’s ambitions to a need for a more prominent public voice, aligning communications and media capacity with the organisation’s internal advocacy. The association stated that this approach is intended to amplify the clinical and cultural expertise of members across sectors and to position AIDA’s perspectives within national and global conversations.

“Our cultures, our peoples, and our doctors are at the absolute heart of everything we do,” AIDA Chief Executive Dr Peter Malouf said.

“This strategic plan signals that strengthening our communications, media capability, and storytelling is an intensely strategic alignment that will directly amplify the medico- cultural expertise of our workforce across all sectors.”