Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Issued by the authority of the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors

Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025

Purpose and operation

The Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025 (Amending Instrument) amends subordinate legislation to change the calculation of the obligation of registered providers of residential care to deliver a staff average amount of direct care (‘care minutes’) each quarter.

The Amending Instrument amends the following subordinate legislation:

• Aged Care Rules 2025 (Aged Care Rules).

Background

The Aged Care Act 2024 (Aged Care Act) provides, among other matters, for the funding and regulation of aged care services.

Providers who are registered to provide aged care (registered providers) may be eligible to receive subsidy payments in respect of the care they provide to a person who has been approved to receive funded aged care services under the Aged Care Act. The Aged Care Act provides that the Minister may determine the amount of subsidy payable to an approved provider for the provision of that type of aged care.

The Aged Care Act also provides that approved providers have obligations in relation to the aged care they provide. These obligations relate to matters that include the quality of care, fees and payments, and accountability for the care that is provided and for the suitability of key personnel. Penalties may be imposed on registered providers who do not meet their obligations.

Staff average amounts of direct care (‘care minutes’)

Schedule 1 of the Amending Instrument amends the Aged Care Rules to change the method for calculating the obligations to provide:

1.       a combined staff average amount of direct care per individual per day; and
2.       a registered nurse average amount of direct care per individual per day,

in respect of an approved residential care home for a quarter of a financial year for the registered provider of the home (‘care minutes obligation’).

The Government accepted and implemented recommendation 86 of the Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (Final Report), which recommended, amongst other matters, that the Government should require providers of residential care to meet a minimum staff time quality and safety standard.

Recommendation 86 of the Final Report also recommended that the care minutes obligation should be linked to what is now known as the base rate of person-centred subsidy for residential care. This was to ensure that providers providing care for a higher-than-average proportion of individuals with high needs care should be required to engage additional staff, and vice versa. Accordingly, the method to calculate the care minutes obligation places relative weights (through varying direct care per individual per day ‘amounts’) on individuals’ residential care classification levels under Part 3 of Chapter 2 of the Aged Care Act.

A drafting error in the Aged Care Rules that commenced on 1 November 2025 published incorrect amounts per classification level in the Aged Care Rules while publishing the correct amounts in the accompanying Explanatory Statement.

Schedule 1 corrects this drafting error. This also has the effect of restoring alignment between care minutes amounts and amounts of residential care funding associated with each classification level through sections 229-5 and 229-10 of the Aged Care Rules.

Authority

Subsection 602(1) of the Aged Care Act provides that the Minister may make legislative instruments prescribing matters that are required or permitted by the Act, or that are necessary or convenient to give effect to the Aged Care Act. The Aged Care Rules are made under this section and provide the operational detail necessary to implement the aged care framework established by the Aged Care Act.

The delivery of direct care (‘care minutes’) obligation is provided for by section 176 of the Aged Care Act.

In accordance with subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, the power to make these Rules includes the power to amend, repeal, or vary them as necessary. This ensures that the Rules can be updated promptly in response to emerging issues, sector feedback, or changes in policy direction.

Commencement

The whole of the Amending Instrument commences the day after the instrument is registered.

Consultation

Information about the specific care minute amounts legislated in this Amending Instrument was communicated to approved providers (as they were then) through electronic media channels in early September 2025, in anticipation of commencement of the Aged Care Rules as they were intended to operate.

General

The Amending Instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003.

Details of the Amending Instrument are set out in Attachment A.

The Amending Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared under section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. A full statement of compatibility is set out in Attachment B.

ATTACHMENT A

Details of the Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025

Section 1 – Name

Section 1 provides that the name of the instrument is the Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025 (Amending Instrument).

Section 2 – Commencement

Section 2 provides that the whole of the instrument commences on the day after the instrument is registered.

Section 3 – Authority

Section 3 provides that the authority for making the instrument is the Aged Care Act 2024.

Section 4 – Schedules

Section 4 provides that each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to this instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to this instrument has effect according to its terms.

Schedule 1—Amendments

Aged Care Rules 2025

Item 1 – Subsection 176-20(3) (table)

This item repeals and substitutes the table in subsection 176-20(3), which provides identification of the relevant daily amount used in working out the required combined staff average amount of direct care (see subsection 176-20(1) of the Aged Care Rules 2025) and the required registered nurse staff average amount of direct care (see subsection 176-20(2) of the Aged Care Rules 2025).

The substituted daily amounts are as follows:

The combined staff daily amount and registered nurse daily amount for a day in the reference period for an individual are identified by reference to the classification level under Part 3 of Chapter 2 of the Aged Care Act 2024 of the individual on that day.

ATTACHMENT B

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliament Scrutiny) Act 2011

Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025

The Aged Care Amendment (Care Minutes) Rules 2025 (the Amending Instrument) is compatible with human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.

Overview of the legislative instrument

The Aged Care Legislation Amendment (Care Minutes) Instrument 2025 (Amending Instrument) amends subordinate legislation to provide for changes to how the obligation of registered providers of residential care to deliver a staff average amount of direct care (‘care minutes’) each quarter is calculated.

The Amending Instrument amends the following subordinate legislation:

• Aged Care Rules 2025 (Aged Care Rules).

Human rights implications

The Amending Instrument engages the following human rights contained in Article 12(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR):

• the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 12(1) of ICESCR and Article 25 of CPRD).

Schedule 1—staff average amount of direct care obligation

Schedule 1 engages the right to health by providing for an obligation of registered providers of residential care to provide at each approved residential care home each quarter of a financial year at least an average amount of direct care per individual receiving funded aged care services per day. The effect of the amendments is also to align how that obligation is calculated each quarter with methods to calculate residential care subsidy, ensuring that approved providers of residential care are funded sufficiently to provide individuals receiving funded aged care services with an amount of clinical care each day that meets their needs.

Conclusion

The Amending Instrument is compatible with human rights as it promotes the human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Sam Rae

Minister for Aged Care and Seniors