The Act includes how the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors can make rules – delegated legislation – which sit underneath the Act and provide further details as to how the Act works. These are the Aged Care Rules 2025.
The rules support specific parts of the Act and help put the Act into practice. For example, where a provision in the Act says, ‘in circumstances prescribed in the rules…’, this section provides the minister with the power to make the rules which set out those circumstances.
The rules made under the Act don’t need to be passed through Parliament in the same way as amendments to the Act need to. It also gives the minister the flexibility to respond quickly to changes in the aged care system. For example, to make changes to the Quality Standards to reflect updated clinical advice on certain issues.
This section sets out what the minister has to consider or include in these rules, as well as what the rules are allowed to do. For example, the minister:
- has to make sure that states and territories agree to any rules for worker screening
- can make rules about former registered providers, if appropriate.
The minister cannot make rules that do the following:
- create an offence or fines
- give power to arrest or detain someone
- give powers to enter or search places or seize items
- impose a tax
- set an amount of money to be appropriated from the Consolidated Revenue Fund
- directly change the text of the Act.
These kinds of changes need full parliamentary scrutiny, such as debates that allow for public discussion and assessment of laws.