Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) 2022

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Aged Care and Other Legislation Amendment (Royal Commission Response) 2022

## What it does
This bill overhauls Australia's aged care system in response to the Royal Commission's findings about serious problems in residential care. It changes how aged care facilities are funded, rated, and regulated — including stricter rules on conduct, better financial oversight, and stronger reporting requirements when things go wrong.

## Why it matters
Thousands of older Australians live in residential aged care, and the Royal Commission found widespread neglect and poor standards. These changes aim to improve safety, transparency, and accountability so aged care providers actually deliver the quality of care residents deserve and families expect to pay for.

## Key details

- **Funding and pricing overhaul**: The government created an Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority to set fairer, more transparent pricing. This replaces an older system that allowed inconsistent charges across different facilities.

- **Star ratings and compliance**: Aged care homes now face a rating system and tougher conduct codes. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has stronger powers to ban problematic providers and leaders from the industry.

- **Mandatory incident reporting**: Facilities must report serious incidents (abuse, accidents, unexplained injuries) immediately. Previously, some issues were buried or delayed, putting vulnerable residents at risk.

- **Money safeguards**: New rules control how aged care providers can use residents' accommodation bonds and deposits, preventing misuse of residents' own money.

Official Description

Amends: the Aged Care Act 1997 and Aged Care (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997 to enable the introduction of the Australian National Aged Care Classification to replace the Aged Care Funding Instrument as the residential aged care subsidy calculation model from 1 October 2022; the Aged Care Act 1997 to: require the secretary to publish information in the form of a star rating system in relation to the quality of aged care provided by residential aged care services and the performance of approved providers of those services in relation to responsibilities and standards; allow the Quality of Care Principles to make provision for the giving of informed consent to the use of restrictive practices in circumstances where a care recipient does not have capacity to consent themselves; and provide immunity from civil or criminal liability in relation to the use of a restrictive practice in certain circumstances; the Aged Care Act 1997 and Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 to: require compliance with a code of conduct by approved providers and their aged care workers and governing persons; extend the Serious Incident Response Scheme to home and flexible care delivered in a home or community care setting from 1 December 2022; introduce new governance and reporting responsibilities for approved providers of Commonwealth-funded aged care; enable the secretary or commissioner to request information or documents from a provider or borrower relating to the use of a loan made with a refundable deposit or accommodation bond and create an offence for a borrower who does not comply with this request; and extend the period of liability for the existing offences for the misuse of refundable accommodation deposits prior to an insolvency event for both providers and key personnel of providers; five Acts to enable information sharing between certain Commonwealth bodies; the National Health Reform Act 2011 and Aged Care Act 1997 to expand the functions of a renamed Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority and establish new governance arrangements and appointments processes; and the National Health Reform Act 2011 , Aged Care Act 1997 and Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 to enable the use and disclosure of information required for the authority to perform its new functions.

Committee Referrals

Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

27 July 2022

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

5 Aug 2022

Last checked by Crossbench

yesterday

Full text indexed

yesterday

🗳️

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

Constituent votes

Voting is closed — this bill has been decided by parliament.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.

🔒 Voting closed — this bill has been decided by parliament