By Sue Field -
Snapshot
- The Aged Care Act 2024 and Aged Care Rules 2025 overhaul the aged care system with new terminology, roles and compliance obligations that legal practitioners must quickly get across as they come into force on 1 November 2025.
- There remain legal grey zones around enduring guardianship, restrictive practices and the new role of ‘supporters’, raising practical and ethical challenges.
- While the reforms promise a rights-based framework, the lack of enforceable rights leaves open the question: will this be real reform or just regulatory reshuffling?
After two false starts in November 2024 and July 2025, it appears that the new Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth) (‘2024 Act’) and the associated Aged Care Rules 2025 (Cth) (‘Rules’) finally commenced on 1 November 2025. There is no question that the old legislation (the Aged Care Act 1997 (Cth) (‘1997 Act’)) ran its course and the aged care system is not working, but whether the new legislation will address the problems that beset aged care or merely create confusion, only time will tell. Matters such as new nomenclature, the rights-based framework and associated penalties for non-compliance, registered supporters and the funding arrangements are already causing consternation amongst professionals, including lawyers working within the sphere of aged care. Those in the community with family already residing in aged care are confused about the impact of changed caps for means-tested fees and Refundable Accommodation Deposit retentions. Families who anticipate a family member may require residential care in the future are at a loss to understand the basics of how aged care will work from now on.
This article will highlight some of the pitfalls that may confront practitioners acting for registered providers (they are no longer to be termed ‘approved providers’), for the family/substitute decision maker/‘person responsible’, or even the individual (no longer to be known as ‘the resident’ or the ‘care recipient’).
