The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has announced the establishment of the First Nations Pharmacy Network.
This landmark initiative will strengthen culturally safe healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The Network will provide a platform for voices with lived experience, cultural leadership, and practical solutions.
The aim is to ensure that every community pharmacy is a place of trust, healing, and cultural connection, where patients are at the centre of care, access to medicines is strengthened, and pharmacists are empowered to practise to their full professional capability.
Network Chair welcomed
The Guild is honoured to welcome The Honourable Linda Burney, a proud Wiradjuri woman and former Minister for Indigenous Australians, as the inaugural Chair of the Network.
The announcement was made at the Guild’s Annual Parliamentary Dinner on Wednesday night (5 November 2025), which was held at Parliament House in Canberra before more than 400 political and industry stakeholders.
The launch of the Network marks a significant milestone in the Guild’s Community Pharmacy Indigenous Health Strategy, which aims to embed cultural safety, amplify community voices, and improve health outcomes for First Nations communities across Australia.
“We know there can be no Closing the Gap without collaboration,” says Professor Trent Twomey, National President of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
“With the expert guidance of Linda Burney as Chair, we are committed to ensuring culturally safe, accessible, and community-led care remains at the heart of our sector.”
The collaboration with Ms Burney comes at a pivotal time, as the Guild continues to prepare for the future expansion of PBS prescribing rights and pharmacist scope of practice.
‘Embedding cultural safety in healthcare important’
“I am honoured to Chair the First Nations Pharmacy Network,” says The Hon. Linda Burney.
“This initiative reflects the power of genuine partnership and the importance of embedding cultural safety in every part of our health system.
“We don’t have to choose between practical and symbolic reconciliation — we can and must do both. Community-led care is not only effective, but also an act of respect.”
Strengthening self-determination and upholding the principles of Closing the Gap
Underscoring community pharmacies’ role in honouring patient cultural knowledge and community leadership, and ensuring care is co-created and led by those the pharmacy serves, the Guild says community pharmacies are “places where trust is built and medicines are explained.
“In community pharmacy, agency and autonomy are returned to patients and communities: individuals are empowered to make informed choices about their health, ask questions freely, and participate actively in their care,” says the Guild.
“This approach honours cultural knowledge and community leadership, ensuring care is co-created and led by those it serves, with allies walking alongside in genuine partnership, with pharmacist-owned community pharmacies.”
“By respecting and elevating the voices and wisdom of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, we strengthen self-determination and uphold the principles at the heart of Closing the Gap.”
Professor Twomey agrees, adding that there is still more work to be done.
“Pharmacists are doing great things to invest in Closing the Gap,” he says.
“But we know there’s more work to do. This is about walking alongside First Nations communities, listening, and acting together.”
