Welcome to the Community @Godiva
A topic about retirement villages started shortly after Choice inaugurated the Community in 2016.
There are a number of intersecting topics linked into that one. Specifically peruse those posted by @BrendanMays from Choice.
An issue for regulation is that for most things Australia is not so much of a country as it is 6 states and 2 territories. Each legislates for itself regarding property matters and each assumes it has it perfect.
Part of the problem with anything changing for the better seems to be tax laws that dissuades companies from building and operating rental properties as a generalisation. The outcome is the rental markets are collections of individually owned properties and retirement villages are designed for ownership and the benefit of the developer not the residents.
Your overview of the issues suggests you are atop all of it, including why it is a problem to get any resolution. You have also noted some of the higher profile reports that seem to have gone nowhere.
As the old saw goes Welcome to Australia, owned and operated by property developers, and retirement villages are operated accordingly. Pollies listen to donors and lobbyists more than anyone, excepting perhaps in marginal seats where every vote becomes important, but those are most often local issues rather than public good issues. Window dressing has been the modus operandi for at least the past decade and most of Australian history has had business prioritised in one or another way over individuals, at least as often if not more so.
‘We’ get what we vote for, and that is based on bags of policies, beliefs, and prejudices rather than single issues. The issues with retirement village contracts is ‘well known’ but neither state nor federal governments seem interested in doing more than shuffling deck chairs, if even that. If the affected seniors became the difference between a party winning and losing they would get attention; property developers, their donations, contacts, and so on do, and ‘here we are’. Some will dispute that, which is their prerogative.
