Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (Cth)
A short factsheet on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission: a body constituted by two separately appointed statutory office-holders, whose own function is to assist them.
Learning outcomes
- State the Commission's establishing Act and identify the two statutory office-holders who constitute it.
- Explain why the Commission's own statutory function is to assist, and why functions must be attributed to an office-holder rather than to the Commission.
- Explain that the Commissioner enforces civil penalty provisions as an authorised applicant rather than by prosecution, and identify what limits that role.
Act: Aged Care Act 2024 (Cth).1
Established: Section 344(1) states that "the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission is established by this section". The Commission was previously established by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 (Cth), which was repealed on the commencement of the 2024 Act on 1 November 2025, so the current Commission is a creature of the new Act and the old section numbers do not carry across.
Purpose: To regulate the delivery of funded aged care services — upholding the rights of individuals under the Statement of Rights, securing provider compliance, and handling complaints — through two statutory office-holders rather than through the Commission as such.
Where the authority sits
The structural point is that almost nothing is conferred on the Commission itself. Section 345 constitutes the Commission as the Commissioner, the Complaints Commissioner, and the staff of the Commission. Section 346 then gives the Commission only two functions: to assist the Commissioner, and to assist the Complaints Commissioner, in the performance of their respective functions.
Each office-holder is appointed separately by the Minister by written instrument, for a period not exceeding five years (ss 347, 356). A student who writes that "the Commission decided" or "the Commission has power to" has misattributed the function. The Act confers it on a named office-holder, and the Commission is the entity through which that office-holder is supported and made accountable under the finance law, the Commissioner being its accountable authority (s 344(2)).
Powers conferred under the Act
Section 348(1) lists the Commissioner's functions as the safeguarding functions, the engagement and education functions, the registration of providers functions, any other functions conferred by Commonwealth law, and the reconsideration and review of decisions relating to them. In performing them the Commissioner must take into consideration the rights under the Statement of Rights and the wishes and views of individuals accessing funded aged care services (s 348(4)).
The safeguarding functions in s 349 are the substance of the regulatory role: upholding rights and protecting the safety, health, wellbeing and quality of life of individuals; protecting continuity of care by monitoring providers' financial viability and prudential compliance; ensuring providers and workers comply with the Act, including by using the regulatory mechanisms in Chapter 6; and overseeing the notification and management of reportable incidents, including analysing information to identify trends or systemic issues.
The complaints side sits elsewhere. Section 357(1) confers the complaints functions on the Complaints Commissioner, not on the Commissioner.
Is it a prosecuting authority?
No, and the Act is explicit about what it is instead. Section 440 provides that each civil penalty provision of the Act "is enforceable under Part 4 of the Regulatory Powers Act", which allows a pecuniary penalty order to be obtained for a contravention. Section 441 makes the Commissioner an authorised applicant for that purpose — but only in relation to civil penalty provisions relating to a function of the Commissioner or the Complaints Commissioner.
That limit matters, because enforcement under this Act is split. Section 442 makes the System Governor the authorised applicant for civil penalty provisions relating to a function of the System Governor. Identifying which office-holder's function a provision relates to therefore decides who may bring the proceeding. The relevant courts are the Federal Court, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2), and a court of a State or Territory with jurisdiction in the matter (s 443).
Self-check
- Have I attributed the function to the Commissioner or the Complaints Commissioner, rather than to the Commission?
- Have I checked whether the provision relates to a Commissioner function or a System Governor function before naming who may apply?
- Have I cited the Aged Care Act 2024, rather than the repealed 2018 Act?