What it is
The new Aged Care Act is the most significant overhaul of aged care law in decades, replacing the Aged Care Act 1997. It responds directly to the findings of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and puts the rights of older people at the centre of the system.
The Act is built around a Statement of Rights for older people and a duty on providers to uphold those rights. It introduces a new regulatory model with a single registration framework, registration categories based on the type and risk of services delivered, and conditions that attach to registration.
It strengthens provider obligations and accountability — including obligations on governing bodies, strengthened Quality Standards, clearer incident management, and a stronger compliance and enforcement toolkit with civil penalties for serious breaches. It also enhances protections for whistleblowers and introduces a supporter framework so older people can be helped to make and communicate decisions.
For providers, the new Act means re-registering under the new categories, reviewing governance and policies against the strengthened obligations, and being able to demonstrate that the rights of older people are protected in practice — not just on paper.
Key requirements
- Register (or re-register) under the new aged care registration categories
- Uphold the Statement of Rights for older people across all services
- Meet the conditions of registration that apply to your service types
- Comply with strengthened provider and governing body obligations
- Operate incident management and complaints systems that meet the new requirements
- Maintain whistleblower protections and support older people’s decision-making
How Veriscope helps
Reform-ready policies
Generate governance, rights and obligation policies aligned to the new Aged Care Act so you are not starting from scratch.
Obligation mapping
Map your existing documents to the Act’s strengthened obligations and conditions of registration.
Rights in practice
Structure the evidence that shows the Statement of Rights is upheld day to day, not just stated.
Gap analysis and remediation
Identify where your current systems fall short of the new Act and prioritise what to fix first.
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