The Aged Care Act gives you a right to stay connected with your pet. The Rules fund no help to do it
The Statement of Rights includes staying connected with a pet. The Aged Care Rules 2025, which decide what is actually paid for, exclude pet care assistance from funded services, and the exclusion sits under the heading General cleaning while art therapy and music therapy are funded. We read all 48 public submissions to the Senate review of those Rules: three raise companion animals, no provider does, and the Department’s own submission does not mention pets at all.
26 August 2026
The evidence base for aged care’s missing price says the funding model’s own relativities need a rethink
IHACPA costed 200 homes, 12,537 residents and 355,830 days of care, measuring direct care time with Bluetooth devices. The average permanent resident cost $430 a day, and $768 in the most remote homes against $419 in the cities. The report’s own recommendation five asks whether the AN-ACC price weights still match what care actually costs.
28 July 2026
2,127 providers, and 412 of them will not be audited against the strengthened Standards
Every funded aged care provider had to be registered in one of six categories from 1 November 2025, and the category decides how closely the regulator checks them. The Commission’s day-one map of the sector, published in April and unreported since, says 81 per cent will be audited against the strengthened Standards. The other 412 will not.
17 August 2026
235 homes just appeared in the staffing statistics. Four in five are at one or two stars
The August extract makes aged care staffing look sharply worse, from 26.4 to 30.0 per cent of homes at 1 or 2 stars. Compare the same homes across both quarters and it improved slightly instead. The entire difference is a group of 235 homes that had no published staffing rating in May and have one now, and four in five of them are at the bottom.
16 August 2026
Home care grew 307 per cent in eight years. Residential grew 9.9
Home care added 221,100 people between 2017 and 2025. Residential added 17,000. The government's own count, and the last full picture before Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages.
Someone can help you deal with aged care without taking over. The Act calls them a supporter
The duty almost nobody knows exists: a supporter must help only as much as necessary and use their best endeavours to keep the person deciding for themselves. The relative who takes over because it is faster is in breach of it.
How to complain about an aged care provider, and what the law actually requires to happen next
90 days for a written determination, then 120, then further periods of 30 days with no stated ceiling. The office that hears your complaint can compel a provider to investigate itself at its own expense, but cannot order it to fix anything.
A home with no star rating might be new. It might also have declined to be surveyed
One home in six in the May extract had no overall rating. Three of the reasons are a provider not reporting, and the manual says those are not exemptions.
How aged care Star Ratings are calculated, and why the clinical measures count least
Four sub-ratings on unequal weights, and falls and pressure injuries carry the smallest. The department’s own manual gives the reason, and it is data maturity scored 10 out of 100 rather than importance.
The Commission does not hold the powers people credit it with. Two Commissioners do
Nearly every aged care story names the Commission, ours included. On its own account the functions sit with two office-holders and the Commission’s job is to assist them. What each actually does.
The median wait for home care services has doubled to 245 days
Eight months, typically, from approval to help actually arriving, on the Productivity Commission’s own tables. Where the time goes and what you can do while you wait.
18 July 2026
“No shortage” means employers can fill the job at the pay they already offer
What the rating actually measures, from the published method. It cannot register a pay-and-conditions argument, because it is defined against current pay and conditions.
30 August 2026
The government rates home care workers as short in every state. Residential aged care workers it rates as no shortage
Read out of the JSA source file: home care short in all nine ratings, residential in two. Treating it as one shortage will fund the wrong thing.
29 August 2026
From 1 August, aged care nursing pay rises for the last time under the work value case. The exact new rates
The determination was signed on 15 July. A first-year RN’s award minimum reaches $1,571.60 a week; the full table, from the document itself.
18 July 2026
The Aged Care Act sets out your rights, then says they are not enforceable in a court
Section 23 gives you a Statement of Rights. Section 24(3) says nothing in that Division is enforceable by a court or tribunal. What the Act points to instead.
19 August 2026
The End-of-Life Pathway pays $25,000 over 12 weeks, and stretches to 16 without anyone asking
A one-off $25,000 for someone with three months or less who wants to stay home, and an automatic four-week extension with no review. What the manual says, and the number the department left out.
6 August 2026
The government published what Support at Home providers actually charge. The gap between them is the story
Care management runs $30 to $150 an hour between the quartiles; house cleaning runs $100 to $117. The spread sits where a participant can least judge value.
4 August 2026
Support at Home price caps are paused. Here is what stands between you and an unfair bill now
The Minister’s stated reason, the refund powers and quarterly price summary that replaced the ceiling, and what both peak bodies say.
18 July 2026
Is aged care losing money? The sector’s two scorecards disagree, and both are right
61 per cent of homes at an operating loss beside 64.5 per cent of providers profitable: different populations, windows and metrics, explained.
18 July 2026
The banning register names 461 people and not one provider. How aged care enforcement actually works
Bans attach to people; providers answer through different tools. A decoded guide, with a real enforceable undertaking as the worked example.
18 July 2026
The government’s own inspector: the aged care ‘transformation’ has not been achieved
The statutory reviewer’s verdict, quoted from the report itself, credits included: the law mandates the destination; the machinery is not built yet.
18 July 2026
The price that funds every aged care bed expires on 30 September. Its replacement is not published yet
The anatomy of the $295.64 AN-ACC price, and the ten-week gap providers are budgeting into. We will report the new number the day it lands.
18 July 2026