Aged Care Act 2024

A person who is a responsible person of a registered provider under paragraph 12(1)(a) or (b) must exercise due diligence to ensure that the provider complies with the provider’s duty under section 179.

In this section, due diligence includes taking reasonable steps:

to acquire and maintain knowledge of requirements applying to registered providers under this Act; and

to gain an understanding of the nature of the funded aged care services the registered provider delivers and the potential adverse effects that can result to individuals when delivering those services; and

to ensure that the registered provider has available for use, and uses, appropriate resources and processes to manage adverse effects to the health and safety of individuals accessing funded aged care services delivered by the provider; and

to ensure that the registered provider has appropriate processes for receiving and considering information regarding incidents and risks and responding in a timely way to that information; and

to ensure that the registered provider has, and implements, processes for complying with any duty or requirement of the registered provider under this Act.

A person may be found liable to pay a civil penalty under this Act relating to a duty under this section whether or not the registered provider has been found liable to pay a civil penalty under section 179.

A person contravenes this subsection if:

the person has a duty under subsection (1); and

the person, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct that does not comply with the duty; and

the conduct amounts to a serious failure by the person to comply with the duty.

Conduct of a person amounts to a serious failure to comply with the duty in subsection (1) if:

the conduct exposes an individual to whom the duty is owed a risk of death or serious injury or illness; and

the conduct:

involves a significant failure; or

is part of a systematic pattern of conduct.

A person contravenes this subsection if:

the person has a duty under subsection (1) in relation to a registered provider; and

the person, without reasonable excuse, engages in conduct; and

the conduct amounts to a serious failure by the person to comply with the duty; and

the conduct results in the death of serious injury to or illness of an individual to whom the duty in section 179 is owed by the registered provider.