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waste Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
$890.0M

The aged care regulator spent $890 million and can't show it made a single nursing home safer

$890 million a year funds the aged care regulator. In return: just 23% of safety violations led to enforcement. Serious problems sat unresolved for 14 months on average. Providers marked their own homework in 71% of cases — no independent checks. With $34 billion in aged care funding at stake, this is regulation that protects nobody.

On Their Watch
AW
Anika Wells
This happened on Wells's watch as Aged Care Minister, June 2022–present. Responsible for aged care regulator performance 2022–present
GH
Greg Hunt
This happened on Hunt's watch as Health and Aged Care Minister, July 2017–May 2022. Aged care regulator funded under Hunt; enforcement failures began this period

What This Means

$890.0M of Australian taxpayer money was wasted at Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. $890 million a year funds the aged care regulator. In return: just 23% of safety violations led to enforcement. Serious problems sat unresolved for 14 months on average. Providers marked their own homework in 71% of cases — no independent checks. With $34 billion in aged care funding at stake, this is regulation that protects nobody.

Spread across Australia's 10.8 million households, that's roughly $82 per family — enough in total for paying the annual salary of 10,471 nurses.

  • The ANAO audit found that despite spending $890 million on regulation, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission could not demonstrate measurable improvement in aged care quality outcomes.
  • Of 412 non-compliance findings, only 23% resulted in enforcement action.
  • Provider self-assessments were accepted without independent verification in 71% of cases, undermining the entire regulatory framework.
Amount Spent
$890,000,000
Original Estimate
Not specified
Waste / Overrun
$890,000,000
AI Confidence
86%

Analysis

The ANAO audit found that despite spending $890 million on regulation, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission could not demonstrate measurable improvement in aged care quality outcomes. Of 412 non-compliance findings, only 23% resulted in enforcement action. Provider self-assessments were accepted without independent verification in 71% of cases, undermining the entire regulatory framework. With $34.2 billion in aged care program expenditure at stake, ineffective regulation represents a significant accountability gap.

Sources

https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/effectiveness-aged-care-quality-regulation
Category: waste
Severity: high
Agency: Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission

What Needs to Change

Action Required

Force the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to prove its $890M spend is delivering measurable outcomes or restructure the regulatory model.

Fund Action Campaign
The aged care regulator spent $890 million and can't show...
$11K
of $40K target
28% funded
76 Australians have funded this
$29K still needed

$40,000 funds a formal complaint to the Inspector-General of Aged Care, legal analysis, and a national media campaign on the regulation performance gap.

Choose an amount
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Impact Scorecard

Updated 30 Apr 2026

Tracking the pressure trail — from publication to policy change. Empty boxes show what's left to do.

📄 Finding published Published 2026-04-30
🔗 Shared 398 times
📰 Media coverage 4 articles
🏛️ MP contacted / responded 6 MPs contacted
Parliamentary question raised
⚖️ Policy change initiated
💰 Estimated annual savings if fixed $300.0M/year if fixed
Complete In progress Not yet
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The Full Reckoning

3 active investigations. 15 completed. 0 in the queue.

Rank Finding Amount Status
1 $7.8 billion of your taxes paid to consultants who left nothing behind $7.8B Active
2 $3.3 billion in dodgy NDIS claims slipped through because nobody was watching $3.3B Active
3 CIMIC Donated $540K to Labor, Liberal and Nationals — Collected $3.1B in Government Construction, 41% Without Open Tender $3.1B Active
4 Thales Australia Donated $195K to Labor and Liberal — Landed $2.2B in Defence Contracts Through Restricted Tender $2.2B Investigated
5 $2.1 billion in government contracts handed out without competition — no bids, no questions $2.1B Investigated
6 Defence blew $1.8 billion over budget on IT projects — and they still don't work properly $1.8B Investigated
7 Ministers overruled their own experts to hand $1.2 billion to whoever they wanted $1.2B Investigated
8 The aged care regulator spent $890 million and can't show it made a single nursing home safer $890.0M Investigated
9 PwC Donated $270K to Labor and Liberal — Then Bagged $700M in Advisory Contracts, Including Confidential Tax Reform Work $697.4M Investigated
10 $719M in community grants flowed to coalition marginal seats at more than double the rate of safe seats $290.0M Investigated
11 Three major charities quietly took 57% of a $402M fund meant for small Indigenous community organisations $80.6M Investigated
12 Services Australia's IT modernisation with Accenture blew $75 million over budget $75.5M Investigated
13 The Australian National University got $175M from a research grants program that chose recipients without competitive bids $29.8M Investigated
14 Home Affairs' IT contractor bill blew up 135% — $18 million became $42 million, no rebid $24.3M Investigated
15 PricewaterhouseCoopers charged Defence $54 million for HR consulting — $22 million more than agreed, no rebid $22.2M Investigated
16 The Bureau of Meteorology's AWS migration cost $22 million more than planned — and nobody shopped around $22.0M Investigated
17 Deloitte built a public service analytics tool for $12.7 million — three times the budget, zero competition $7.9M Investigated
18 Ernst & Young charged double to evaluate an Indigenous health program — hired directly, no competition $4.7M Investigated
$23.6B total waste identified — and counting $23.6B