Rules consultation
We progressively invited feedback on the Aged Care Rules that will sit under the new Aged Care Act 2024 (the new Act).
The Rules provide further detail and instruction on how the new Act will work.
We published the Rules across 7 separate releases for consultation between September 2024 and May 2025, and communicated updates via this page and our regular channels during each consultation period.
The new Act will result in major changes across the aged care system. The consultation on the Rules was a valuable opportunity for:
- everyone to better understand what these changes will mean for them
- everyone to learn how the Rules will impact older people, and the quality of care they receive
- us to ensure the Rules are refined based on feedback from the community
- us to ensure the Rules accurately represent feedback collected through previous consultation
- providers to tell us what they need to prepare for the new Act.
The final Rules were signed and made by the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors in September 2025. The final Rules are available in full on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Read more about the Rules consultation.
Exposure draft consultation
The exposure draft of the Bill for a new Act was released for public consultation on 14 December 2023.
During the 12-week consultation, we:
- received over 320 submissions and more than 800 surveys
- heard from more than 10,000 people at our 3 webinars, 42 workshops and 5 roundtables.
This included:
- older people, their families and carers
- aged care providers and workers
- advocates and representatives
- volunteers
- researchers
- experts
- sector peaks, associations and unions.
The feedback we received from this consultation informed the development of the new Act.
Read more about we heard during this consultation in:
Consultation papers
- A new Aged Care Act – Statement of changes from the exposure draft
This statement sets out the main changes to the Bill for the new Aged Care Act since the exposure draft and foundations consultations. - A new Aged Care Act: exposure draft – Consultation paper no. 2
This detailed paper guided the public consultation on the draft new Aged Care Act. - A new Aged Care Act: exposure draft – Consultation paper no. 2 summary – Plain English version
This paper is a plain English summary of the detailed consultation paper which guided the public consultation on the draft new Aged Care Act.
Foundations consultation
In August 2023, we sought feedback on the foundations of the new Act, including on the proposed Statement of Rights, Statement of Principles and Objects of the Act.
We received feedback from:
- 1,330 people who attended a webinar
- more than 400 people who attended workshops and roundtables
- 291 people who responded to our survey.
This included:
- older people, their families and carers
- aged care providers
- aged care workers
- sector peak organisations.
The feedback we received from this consultation informed the development of the new Act.
Read more about what we heard during this consultation in our feedback summary report.
A new Aged Care Act: the foundations – Consultation summary report
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