Prime Minister chooses words carefully on 24/7 RNs
Aged Care RN Compliance Falls Short
- Coverage gap: Only 93% of aged care homes achieved 24/7 RN coverage
- Government claim: Ministers cite 99% compliance figure
- Exemptions apply: Some rural and remote homes remain exempt
- Policy rollout: Mandatory 24/7 RN rules began in 2023
It was only a few weeks ago that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese repeated the often-quoted statistic.
“We committed to putting nurses back into nursing homes,” he said at a Canberra press conference last month. “We have that 99% of the time. People said that wasn’t possible.”
In the last year or so, politicians, including Health Minister Mark Butler and Aged Care Minister Sam Rae, as well as the PM, have regularly stated that aged care homes have RNs on duty 99% of the time.
But new data from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing for April 2026 shows the quoted statistic is carefully worded – and avoids the fact that about 150 homes are not meeting the 24/7 mandatory target.
There are just under 2,600 aged care homes in Australia in total, including homes that did not report 24/7 RN compliance and homes with exemptions.
Of those homes, 2,423 achieved 24/7 RN coverage – only 93% of all homes.
The 99% figure is arrived at by summing all the hours where an RN was onsite across all aged care homes and dividing it by all the hours aged care homes were operational.
The 24/7 RN policy
The Labor Government came to power in 2022 in part on the promise to fix aged care, including a commitment to introduce 24/7 RNs – a recommendation that arose from the Aged Care Royal Commission.
New laws introducing the mandatory RN requirement came into effect on 1 July 2023.
All aged care homes must report compliance through the Government Provider Management System (GPMS).
Homes in MMM 5, 6 or 7 (rural or remote areas) with no more than 30 beds and able to show resident needs are still being met, are entitled to exemptions. And smaller aged care homes (50 beds or fewer) are eligible for a 24/7 RN supplement to help offset the additional costs (this is not paid to homes with exemptions).
Government-operated Multi-Purpose Services will be required to comply with new 24/7 RN rules from 1 July 2026.
NOTE: We updated this article on 16 June 2026 to state that it is correct to say that RNs are on duty 99% of the time.
