Role
The Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council (Advisory Council) provides advice to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner and the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner on the performance of their functions, including by identifying current and emerging risks and making recommendations.
The Advisory Council also provides advice to the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors on matters arising in relation to the performance of the Commission's functions.
The Advisory Council operates under the authority of the Aged Care Act 2024. Further details on the Advisory Council's functions and operating arrangements are provided in the Act.
Council members
The Advisory Council has ministerially appointed members and ex-officio members. Information on current members is provided below.
Ms Leanne Kearins (Chair)
Ms Leanne (Liz) Kearins is an experienced senior executive, board director and consultant, with a strong track record in leading organisational culture change, strategy and risk, communication and stakeholder engagement, and health and safety.
She has held executive leadership roles at Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland, Queensland’s Health Quality and Complaints Commission, the Queensland Bulk Water Authority (Seqwater), and award-winning performance cultures consultancy, Actrua.
As founder of Engagiosity, Ms Kearins now partners with organisations on strategy development and execution, culture change and transformation, leadership development, and safety performance improvement.
A champion of person-centred care, Ms Kearins serves as Chair of Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia and Non-Executive Director of Australia's Older Persons Advocacy Network.
She is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders, and holds membership with the Australian HR Institute, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Communication and PR Australia, the Australian Institute of Health and Safety, and the National Safety Council of Australia Foundation.
Ms Margot Richardson (Deputy Chair)
Ms Margot Richardson is a Fellow of CPA Australia with extensive experience in providing strategic governance, financial and risk management advice to both not-for-profit, and commercial organisations. Based in Far North Queensland, Margot has supported providers in remote and regional locations with a strong focus on First Nations providers.
Margot has a history of engagement across the care sector and is currently an independent director of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine. She also holds a number of other governance roles including being company secretary of Southern Gulf National Resource Management, audit committee member for the Queensland Ombudsman and an Independent Director of Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC. She is also the Director of Business Mapping Solutions, a bespoke governance consultancy focusing on supporting Indigenous corporations, NFP and entrepreneurial ventures.
Previous experience includes roles on the boards of Dietitians Australia, Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network and Community Enterprise Queensland.
Professor Valerie Braithwaite
Professor Valerie Braithwaite is an Emeritus professor from the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. She holds a PhD in psychology.
Professor Braithwaite has taught Gerontology, and her research interests include ageism and aged care. With John Braithwaite and Toni Makkai, she co-authored “Regulating Aged Care: Ritualism and the New Pyramid.”
In addition to being a member of the Advisory Council, Professor Braithwaite is a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for designing the regulatory framework for the new Aged Care Act and the Advisory Council for the Australian Skills Quality Authority.
Mr Andrew Brown
Mr Brown has extensive public sector experience specialising in regulation, administrative reviews and investigations.
Mr Brown is a former Queensland Government CEO with 30-years’ experience working within the public sector. He served as the Queensland Health Ombudsman for a period of four years, concluding his term in January 2022. He has held other senior roles including the Deputy Ombudsman at the Queensland Ombudsman’s Office and the Chief Inspector of Prisons within the then Queensland Department of Corrective Services.
Mr Brown has extensive experience in public administration and designing and implementing effective and efficient regulatory and complaints management systems. He has a track record of leading transformational change.
Mr Brown currently works as a consultant. In 2022, he led the Independent Review of the Regulation of Medical Practitioners Who Perform Cosmetic Surgery on behalf of Ahpra and the Medical Board of Australia. More recently he has consulted in the areas of health and education regulation. He was appointed to the AHPRA board in November 2023 and is Chair of the Ahpra Regulatory Performance Committee.
Mr Brown is an admitted solicitor and holds a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Public Administration.
Dr Noel Collins
Dr Noel Collins is an older adult psychiatrist who has extensive experience providing specialist care to older people who live in residential aged care facilities. Dr Collins has worked in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Currently Dr Collins is the Director of Older Adult Mental Health for the Western Australia Country Health Service.
Dr Collins led the development of a renewed state-wide model of service for Older Adult Mental Health Services in WA. He is also a member of the bi-national Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry Faculty of Psychiatry of Older Adults.
Dr Collins has a lived understanding of the current challenges, and potential solutions, in providing safer systems of mental health care for older Australians.
Dr Collins’s current academic work is focused on improving care for people with behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). He has published local, regional, and national audits on the use of antipsychotics in BPSD for people living in residential care settings. He also has an interest in the application of sociological principles in real world clinical settings.
Ms Fiona Cornforth
Ms Cornforth is a First Nations person with demonstrated senior leadership in First Nations health and wellbeing using the strength of culture to lead change.
Ms Cornforth is of the Wuthathi peoples of the far north-east cape of Queensland with family roots also in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait Islands). She has gained experience and perspectives in education, leadership, governance and business development at home and globally. In all areas Ms Cornforth shares a message of celebration and gratitude for the greatness of ancestors, Elders, and the ontology and authority that holds individuals, families and nations.
Ms Cornforth has served as CEO and Deputy CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation, a national organisation leading the movement on survivor-led intergenerational healing. She is currently serving as Head of Yardhura Walani, the National Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Wellbeing Research at the Australian National University. Fiona specialises in identifying and optimising opportunities for systems to change, knowing the impacts of intergenerational trauma as well as the power and strengths of First Nations peoples’ cultures to lead that change.
Ms Julie Dundon
Ms Julie Dundon is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian. She is also a Director of Nutrition Professionals Australia (NPA). In this role she consults with the aged care and food industries to improve food standards in aged care.
Ms Dundon is the Aged Care Subject Matter Lead for Dietitians Australia. This role requires leading and developing the Aged Care Advocacy Priority Area which involves, among other things, leading policy development, strategic communications development, and stakeholder engagement.
Ms Dundon has also previously worked in management for residential aged care sites and services, including residential aged care sites that specifically cater for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities.
Ms Julie Reeves
Ms Julie Reeves has over 15 years’ experience supporting national health policy advocacy and strategy development through providing advice to government and other bodies. She is also a registered nurse with extensive experience in many areas of nursing including clinical, education, and research.
Ms Reeves has extensive knowledge of health and care regulation through her work with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and in her current role as Strategic Lead – Aged Care with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
Ms Reeves holds tertiary qualifications in nursing, with a Master of Nursing Research. She has also obtained numerous qualifications in relation to health informatics, government and policy development, and assessment and workplace training. She has a strong interest in understanding how research and health system information can be used to educate and improve care delivery and regulation.
Professor Edward Strivens AM PSM
Professor Edward (Eddy) Strivens is an experienced geriatrician and researcher with experience in rural and remote and First Nations health care.
Professor Strivens is the Regional Geriatrician and former Clinical Director for Older Persons, Subacute and Rehabilitation, Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service. He also holds the role of Professor and Lead of the Healthy Ageing Research Team (HART) with James Cook University School of Medicine and is Past President of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine.
Professor Strivens’ interests include integrated and sub-acute care, dementia in acute care and regional outpatient memory clinics, including outreach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in the Torres Strait and Cape York. His clinical research interests with the HART include Successful Ageing and Dementia in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities and Models of Integrative Service Delivery, including transitions in Sub-Acute Care and Community Care.
Professor Strivens was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant services to geriatric medicine and professional organisations in the 2023 Australia Day Honours. In 2015 Professor Strivens was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Queensland Health in aged care and the biennial Louis Ariotti Award for excellence and innovation in the field of Rural and Remote Health. He is a Board member of the Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation and the Aged Care Advisory Group for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.
Professor Victoria Traynor
Professor Victoria Traynor is both a Professor of Healthy Ageing at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, and a Professor of Dementia Research at Warrigal in New South Wales. Professor Traynor was the inaugural appointment into both of these roles in 2024. Professor Traynor has worked in Australia for 19 years and started her career as a gerontological nurse in Scotland in 1992.
Professor Traynor also has extensive experience designing and teaching post-graduate aged and dementia care master’s degrees and qualitative research methods for PhD Integrated degrees, as well as advising on aged and dementia content for undergraduate subjects.
Ex officio members
Ms Liz Hefren-Webb (Commissioner)
Liz joined the Commission in January 2025.
Read more about her work and background on the Commission’s Executive Leadership page.
Dr Mandy Callary (Chief Clinical Advisor)
Mandy Callary started as our Chief Clinical Advisor in July 2024.
Read more about her work and background on the Commission’s Executive Leadership page.
Mr Robert Day (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing)
Robert Day is the First Assistant Secretary of the Quality and Assurance Division at the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Robert has over 20 years of professional experience in the Australian Public Service, including 6 years in aged care policy. Robert also brings to his role experience as a volunteer and board member with local charity and not-for-profit organisations.
Mr Callum Moore
Callum Moore has worked for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission for a number of years, across a variety of roles mostly within the Intake and Complaints Resolution Group. He has been a long time CPSU delegate, and recently led the CPSU's bargaining team for the ACQSC's enterprise agreement.
Meetings
The Advisory Council meets approximately 6 times per year, supplemented by additional out-of-session meetings or stand-alone ‘deep dives’ to ensure it can provide timely advice.
Communiques
Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council - Communiques
