Background As The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) introduces alternatives to the Objective Structured Clinical Examination, it is imperative that standards are continually set for a culturally safe general practice workforce. Assessments have many functions and should be continually reviewed to ensure that they require general practitioners (GPs) to demonstrate genuine cultural safety. Objective The aim of this article is to highlight the complexities in assessing the cultural safety of GPs when consulting with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Discussion Presently there is a lack of validated approaches for assessing cultural safety of GPs. This creates challenges for the RACGP in redesigning fellowship examinations. Yet in this challenge is an opportunity to consider assessment design that is not competency based, amplifies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' voices and reflects the complexity of cultural safety