Federal, state and territory aged care ministers have agreed that aged care workers will be obliged to report physical and sexual abuse, and any suspected abuse, of elderly people.
Police background checks on workers and random inspections of aged-care facilities will also figure in the series of changes to aged care requirements.
The federal Aged Care Minister, Santo Santoro, says the changes aim to restore confidence in aged care following a series of nursing home abuse scandals.
"The meeting of ministers agreed that we need to do everything possible to reduce the incidence of sexual and other abuse within aged care facilities throughout the country.
"My commitment is to work with everybody, including the media, in getting across the message - particularly to the perpetrators of these heinous crimes - that we have been debating over the past 5 or 6 weeks that it's just not acceptable that that sort of behaviour takes place in our aged care facilities."