Consultation on the new Aged Care Act

Current consultation

We continue to engage across the entire sector on our new aged care laws. This will ensure everyone is ready for the start of the new Aged Care Act from 1 July 2025.

We are progressively inviting feedback on the Rules that will sit under the new Act. We are currently consulting on:

•  the Rules for Chapter 4, as part of the Stage 2b release
• the Rules for Chapter 3, as part of the Stage 3 release.

The purpose of the Rules is to provide further detail and instruction on how the new Act will work.

The new Act will result in major changes across the aged care system. This consultation on the Rules is 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.

Timeline for Rules consultation 

We are publicly releasing the Rules in 4 separate stages and will communicate via this page and our regular channels once the consultation period for each release opens. 

Aged Care Rules consultation – topics by release

This document outlines the topics and timelines for each release of the Aged Care Rules consultation. 

It explains which rules:

• are new to aged care
• will be partially or mostly new to aged care
• already exist now in aged care.

The timelines in the document are indicative only and may change.

Transitional Rules

The Transitional Rules align to the Chapters in the Aged Care Act 2024 and will deal with matters not addressed by the Aged Care (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Act 2024. The Transitional Rules are mechanical in nature and will seek to ensure a seamless transition between the existing legal framework and the new framework with a focus on ensuring continuity of care for older people. A summary of what will be in the Transitional Rules is now available.

Stage 3 release – Provider obligations

The Stage 3 release contains the draft Rules for Chapter 3 of the new Aged Care Act. 

This release focuses on:

• existing obligations like the Code of Conduct, restrictive practices and the strengthened Quality Standards 
• new requirements including rights and principles 
• reporting and recordkeeping requirements. 

We have included a supporting document to help you better understand the Rules covered in this stage of the consultation. It is not a comprehensive guide to the Rules, nor is it a standalone document. Please read it with:

• the new Act and its Explanatory Memorandum
• the draft Rules released in Stage 3. 

You can submit feedback via this online form. The form includes survey questions, in addition to free text boxes and the ability to upload files for lengthier responses. 

Submissions close 13 March 2025. 

Stage 2 release – Funding of aged care services (Chapter 4)

The Stage 2 release contains the draft Rules for Chapter 4 of the Aged Care Act. Chapter 4 is about the funding of aged care services, including subsidies, contributions, means testing, accommodation and grants. 

An overview of the draft Rules for Chapter 4 is available. The Rules for Chapter 4 are being released in sub-stages, including:

• Stage 2a (funding for Support at Home)
• Stage 2b (funding for other aged care programs, including for individuals already accessing funded aged care services on 1 July 2025, i.e. the ‘no worse off’ principle)
• More topics, including grants and accommodation payments, will be released for feedback at a later date.

You will be able to submit feedback via an online form when each stage is released.

Stage 2b release – Chapter 4 Rules

This release focuses on the funding arrangements for the aged care programs covered by Chapter 4 of the new laws.

A small number of topics under Chapter 4 are not included in Stage 2b and will be released at a later date. These include:

• subsidy calculations for older people who entered permanent residential aged care before 1 July 2025
• grants for providers to deliver aged care services, including the Grantee Code of Conduct
• accommodation payments and accommodation contributions, including the collection and indexation of refundable accommodation deposits (RADs).

As part of the Stage 2b release, we have also re-released the draft Rules from Stage 2a, which focused on Support at Home funding arrangements. This will allow you to view the Rules for Support at Home along with the other Chapter 4 Rules released as part of Stage 2b  As the feedback received from the Stage 2a rules is still being analysed, this release has not changed from the original release in November 2024.

We have included a supporting document which includes a glossary of common terminology to help better understand the Rules. It is not a comprehensive guide to the Rules, nor is it a standalone document. Please read it with:

• the new Act and its Explanatory Memorandum
• the Overview of the New Aged Care Act Rules consultation – Release 2 – Funding of aged care services (Chapter 4) 
• the draft Rules released in Stage 2b.

Please note that all financial amounts included in the draft Rules are subject to change.

You can submit feedback via this online form. The form includes survey questions, in addition to free text boxes and the ability to upload files for lengthier responses. 

Submissions close 28 February 2025.

Stage 2a release – Funding related to Support at Home

The Stage 2a release contains the draft Rules for Chapter 4 of the Aged Care Act 2024. The release focuses on funding related to the new Support at Home program, it covers funding for aged care services under the program, including subsidies, individual contributions and means testing for older people.

Feedback was collected via an online form. Submissions closed on 6 December 2024. 

Stage 1 release – Service list

The Stage 1 consultation release contained the service list. This outlined the care and services that will be available to older people under the new laws.

Submissions closed on 31 October 2024.

A summary of the feedback we received is available on the Ageing and Aged Care Engagement Hub. You can also view the individual submissions we received.

We will use this feedback to refine the Rules for the new laws. 

Service List – Residential Care

We have now completed further consultation on the proposed Residential Care aspect of the Service List. This followed feedback received on the Service List (through Stage 1 Release of the Aged Care Rules). The Residential Care Service List explains what care and services residential aged care homes must provide to residents. The discussion paper for this consultation included proposed changes to the previously released Service List and some questions for feedback.

For more information, visit our Consultation Hub. This consultation closed on 20 January 2025. 

Previous consultation

The current consultation builds on feedback received on the foundations of the new Aged Care Act, the exposure draft of the Bill and separate consultations on related policy. 

Last year, the Aged Care Taskforce conducted independent engagements to give expert advice on a range of design details, including services.

In addition, we conducted a survey in 2022, asking what aged care services should be included in the new Support at Home program. We received more than 1,700 responses from older people, their families and carers, providers and health professionals. 

Much of the feedback we received in previous consultation informed the development of the new Act.

Exposure draft consultation

The feedback we received during consultation on the exposure draft of the Bill informed the development of the new Act.

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:

• our consultation report
• the individual submissions.

Foundations consultation 

During consultation on the foundations of the new Aged Care 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:

• the Aged Care Engagement Hub 
• our feedback summary report.

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