Your rights and protections

Protections when you raise a concern

The Aged Care Act includes rights and protections for people who share certain concerns about aged care. To learn how the Aged Care Act protects you if you make a complaint or give feedback on your concern:

read our Managing Whistleblower Disclosures Policy
call us on 1800 951 822 (free call)
visit Protection for whistleblowers, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing
call your union.

Protections when someone raises a concern about you

We respect your rights as an aged care worker or responsible person. If we receive information that raises questions or concerns about your behaviour, we’ll:

tell you about our questions and concerns
help you understand the issues, and the actions we can take
give you an opportunity to have a representative or support person
let you ask questions and give us other relevant information
support you with an interpreter if you’ve asked for one
give you an opportunity to respond to the concerns we have raised with you before we decide what to do.

If you’re not happy with the process or the decision we make, you can:

give us feedback
make a complaint
depending on the type of decision, ask us to reconsider the decision
contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

You can give us feedback or complain:

through our Feedback about the Commission webpage
by calling us on 1800 951 822.

We deal with all complaints and feedback about us fairly and without bias.

For information about how we make sure our actions, decisions and processes are fair, see our:

fact sheet for aged care workers
Regulatory Bulletin on the review process.

When we’ll contact you

We may contact you:

to help us resolve a complaint or respond to feedback we’ve received about you, another worker, responsible person or provider
if we’re concerned that your conduct doesn’t meet the standards of behaviour and treatment of people that we expect under the Aged Care Code of Conduct.