Minister for Ageing Jacinta Collins says injuries sustained by an elderly dementia patient in a NSW nursing home are distressing.
Advocacy groups are calling the situation inside Australia aged care centres a national emergency, and warn elderly people are dying or in significant pain due to a lack of staff and training.
Just one in five of the 200,000 people living in nursing homes across Australia receive proper palliative care, while half are malnourished, ABC's Lateline program reports.
Senator Collins said the allegations were "very concerning", adding the images of serious wounds sustained by an 86-year-old NSW woman were particularly distressing.
"The story about the lady with the very badly managed wounds is perhaps the worst I've seen in many years of dealing with aged care," she told ABC TV on Monday.
She says it's critical Australia has a strong aged care system and an effective complaints mechanism or else these problems will continue.
Senator Collins says there are a range of problems in aged care facilities, including over medication and issues of staff shortages.
There have been suggestions that more stringent staff-to-resident ratios be enforced in nursing homes nationwide, she added.
"But they're not part of the current model," she said.
Senator Collins was elevated from parliamentary secretary to mental health and ageing minister, and to cabinet, following Kevin Rudd's return to the Labor leadership.
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