A new Aged Care Commissioner will be created with wide-ranging powers to investigate alleged physical and sexual abuse in the nation's 3000 nursing homes.

The federal Government will today unveil a $90 million package of reforms for the industry, which will force nursing home operators to report all cases of sexual or serious physical abuse to police. 

It will also shield whistleblowing staff from harassment for reporting suspicious incidents. Operators who fail to comply will face sanctions, including bans on taking on new residents, which would slash their revenue. 

Ageing Minister Santo Santoro's reform package - welcomed by the Labor aged care spokeswoman Jan McLucas as "better late than never" - follows a spate of recent allegations of abuse of the frail aged. 

Early this year, a 51-year-old male nurse at the Immanuel Gardens Retirement Village on Queensland's Sunshine Coast was charged over alleged sexual assaults on a resident. There were also allegations of the rape of a 98-year-old woman in a Victorian nursing home. 

Senator Santoro told The Australian last night the great majority of nursing homes were safe but that no caring society could accept such incidents. 

"These changes provide significant improvements to systems that reduce the likelihood of this kind of threat to the safety and security of residents," he said. 
Under the planned changes, the existing Aged Care Complaints Resolution Scheme will be replaced by a new Office for Aged Care Quality and Compliance. It will have wider powers to examine complaints from residents, families and nursing home staff. 

The Aged Care Commissioner will replace the existing Commissioner for Complaints and be armed with stronger powers, including the ability to hear complaints and initiate investigations, even when no specific complaint has been received. 

The changes, to take effect from next April 1, come in addition to a $10 million plan announced in April for compulsory background checks of all nursing home staff and extra unannounced inspections of nursing homes. Senator Santoro also told a meeting of state counterparts yesterday an extra $30million would be made available for the care of elderly people still living in their homes. 

The Government faced pressure from some industry sectors opposed to compulsory reporting of alleged abuse. They argued dementia patients could needlessly tie up investigative resources with false claims. 

Senator Santoro said he had opted to limit compulsory reporting of allegations of physical abuse to serious cases. But he had taken a zero-tolerance approach to sexual abuse allegations, with providers bound to report all claims to police and the Department of Health and Ageing and to establish processes to encourage staff to report all allegations or suspicions. 

Catholic Health Australia backed the reforms last night. 

"I think these measures will go a long way towards restoring confidence in the community that abuse will be addressed," said chief executive Francis Sullivan, whose organisation's members provide about 20,000 nursing home beds across the country. 

However, Mr Sullivan said the compulsory reporting of sexual or physical abuse could have also included psychological abuse.