The Commission is the other side of the same coin as the childcare regulator, and this database treats it the same way: the direction of travel is deliberately toward more scrutiny, in response to a royal commission that found serious harm, and this project takes no position against that.

The Aged Care Act 2024 commenced on 1 November 2025 and introduced universal registration, merging what had been two separate processes — provider approval and accreditation — into a single registration in one or more categories set by the risk of the service type delivered. Existing government-funded providers were deemed across on commencement and notified of their categories in early November 2025.

That is a merge reform of exactly the kind this database argues for, enacted at national scale, and it is recorded as Universal registration: one aged care approval instead of two. It is also a useful corrective to the assumption that merging approvals means weakening them: the same Act substantially increased the Commission's enforcement powers and its ability to impose conditions. Fewer gates and sharper teeth is a coherent combination, and it is the combination this site should be arguing for more often than it does.