On 1 November 2025, the Aged Care Act 2024 replaced the Aged Care Act 1997 as the primary legislation governing aged care in Australia. This was not a minor update — it was a complete rewrite that fundamentally changed how aged care is regulated, funded, and delivered. For providers still operating under old assumptions, the compliance risks are significant.
The new Act introduces a rights-based framework that places older people at the centre of every decision. It strengthens the powers of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC), introduces new criminal penalties for serious failures, and creates enforceable duties that did not exist under the previous legislation. If you have not already reviewed your governance structures, policies, and operational processes against the new Act, you are behind. For a practical look at how aged care compliance software helps providers manage these new obligations, and how to meet the Strengthened Quality Standards, see our dedicated guides.
What the Aged Care Act 2024 replaces
The Aged Care Act 2024 replaces three pieces of legislation that had governed Australian aged care for decades: the Aged Care Act 1997, the Aged Care (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 (which has been substantially amended rather than fully repealed). The 1997 Act was built around provider entitlements — a provider-centric model where approved providers received government subsidies and were expected to meet certain standards in return.
The new Act inverts this model. It starts with the Statement of Rights for older people receiving aged care, and builds the entire regulatory framework around protecting and promoting those rights. This is not a cosmetic change — it affects how the ACQSC conducts assessments, how complaints are handled, how incidents are investigated, and what constitutes a breach. Providers who understood the 1997 Act well still need to invest time understanding the 2024 Act, because the underlying philosophy is different.
The 5 biggest changes for providers
1. A statutory Statement of Rights. For the first time, the rights of older people in aged care are enshrined in primary legislation. These include the right to safe, quality care, the right to be treated with dignity and respect, the right to make decisions about their own care, the right to complain without fear of reprisal, and the right to access information. Providers must demonstrate how they uphold these rights in practice — not just in policy documents.
2. Strengthened Quality Standards. The 7 Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards replace the previous 8 standards. They are more prescriptive, more outcome-focused, and apply across both residential care and Support at Home. Self-assessment against these standards must be continuous, not annual.
3. Enhanced enforcement powers. The ACQSC now has significantly expanded enforcement tools, including banning orders, infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, and civil penalties. For the most serious failures — including neglect causing serious harm — criminal penalties of up to 5 years' imprisonment can apply.
4. New governance obligations. Providers must maintain a responsible persons register, conduct suitability assessments for all individuals in positions of influence, and demonstrate that their governing body has the skills and experience to oversee aged care delivery.
5. The Support at Home program. The Act establishes the legislative framework for Support at Home, which replaced Home Care Packages from 1 November 2025. This introduced 8 classification levels, quarterly budgets, and per-service contributions — a fundamentally different funding and compliance model for home care providers.
New criminal and civil penalties
The Aged Care Act 2024 introduces a tiered penalty framework that is substantially more severe than anything under the 1997 Act. At the top of the scale, criminal offences apply where a provider's conduct causes, or is likely to cause, serious harm to a care recipient. These offences carry penalties of up to 5 years' imprisonment for individuals and substantial fines for bodies corporate.
Civil penalties apply to a broader range of non-compliance, including failure to report serious incidents, failure to maintain a responsible persons register, and failure to comply with conditions of registration. The ACQSC can also issue infringement notices for lower-level breaches — essentially on-the-spot fines that do not require court proceedings.
This penalty framework means that compliance is no longer just about passing assessments. Non-compliance can result in personal liability for directors and senior executives, particularly where the governing body failed to exercise adequate oversight.
Commencement timeline and transitional provisions
The Aged Care Act 2024 did not commence all at once. Key dates include:
1 October 2024: The 215 care minutes per resident per day requirement (including 44 RN minutes) took effect, increasing from the previous 200/40 target. This requirement exists under the Aged Care Act 1997 but carries forward under the 2024 Act.
1 November 2025: The Aged Care Act 2024 formally commenced, replacing the 1997 Act. The 7 Strengthened Quality Standards took effect. The Support at Home program launched, replacing Home Care Packages. SIRS obligations extended to home care providers. New governance, registration, and responsible persons requirements commenced.
No earlier than 1 July 2027: The Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) will transition into the Support at Home program. CHSP providers currently continue operating under existing arrangements until this transition occurs.
Transitional provisions apply to several areas. Existing provider registrations were transitioned to the new framework — providers did not need to re-register from scratch, but their registration conditions may have been updated. Existing Home Care Package clients were automatically transitioned to SAH with grandfathered entitlements including a lower lifetime contribution cap.
Providers should be aware that the ACQSC has indicated it will apply a reasonable and proportionate approach during the initial transition period. However, this is not an exemption from compliance — it means the Commission will focus on whether providers have made genuine efforts to understand and implement the new requirements.
What providers need to do now
If you have not already taken the following steps, they should be priorities for your compliance and governance teams:
Review your registration conditions. The transition from the 1997 Act to the 2024 Act included a re-registration process. Ensure your registration conditions are current and that you understand any new conditions that were imposed during transition.
Update all policies and procedures. Any policy that references the Aged Care Act 1997, the old Quality Standards, or the previous regulatory framework needs to be updated. This includes clinical governance policies, complaints policies, incident management procedures, and workforce policies.
Conduct a gap analysis against the Strengthened Quality Standards. Use a structured self-assessment checklist to identify where your current practices meet, partially meet, or do not meet the new standards.
Train your workforce. Every worker needs to understand the new Code of Conduct, the Statement of Rights, and their personal obligations under the Act. Board members need governance-specific training on their duties under the new legislation.
Establish continuous compliance monitoring. The era of annual compliance reviews is over. The ACQSC now expects providers to demonstrate continuous compliance through real-time tracking, regular self-assessment, and proactive gap closure. Purpose-built compliance software makes this manageable; spreadsheets and manual processes do not.
Review your financial compliance. If you hold RADs, ensure your prudential compliance is up to date. If you deliver home care, ensure your SAH budget management and contribution calculations are accurate.
How Statura Care helps
Statura Care was purpose-built for the Aged Care Act 2024. Every module — from SIRS incident reporting to quality standards self-assessment to workforce compliance — is designed around the requirements of the new Act, not retrofitted from the old one. The platform maps your compliance obligations to specific sections of the legislation, tracks deadlines automatically, and provides a single source of truth for your governing body's oversight.
Whether you need to manage your responsible persons register, prepare for ACQSC assessment contacts, or track care minutes targets, Statura Care brings it all together in one aged care compliance software platform. For a detailed overview of the Act's requirements, visit our dedicated Aged Care Act 2024 page.