Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Builders: workers compensation requirements in Australia

Statutory cover for injury to workers, arranged through each state or territory scheme rather than on the open market.

Data as at · refreshed by scripts/seed-graph.mjs

Verified requirements, by state

  • Licence liability condition: No public liability condition attaches to a NSW builder licence, but insurance does condition the licence itself: new building-category licences are restricted to contracts not requiring home building compensation cover, capping contracts at $20,000 until insurance eligibility is granted. NSW · effective 2026-08-13 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: A certificate of eligibility to obtain insurance, where applicable, is a supporting document at application. The contract-capping condition is removed once the licensee or the insurer advises Building Commission NSW that insurance or eligibility has been granted. NSW · effective 2026-08-13 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Building Commission NSW issues builder licences under the category of general building work, lodged through Service NSW. A contractor licence is required for residential building work valued over $5,000 in labour and materials including GST. NSW · effective 2026-08-13 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: Public liability insurance is required for registration only in the builder-demolisher and erector or supervisor of temporary structures categories, not for domestic builder registration. Home warranty cover is separate and payable per eligible project. VIC · effective 2026-08-13 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence evidence required: Evidence that the required insurance is held, or that the applicant is eligible to purchase it, must be given before a building registration is granted or renewed. Certificates of currency are accepted; policy schedules and invoices are not. VIC · effective 2026-08-13 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licensing body: The Building and Plumbing Commission registers building practitioners in Victoria across ten categories. The domestic building classes are domestic builder (unlimited) and domestic builder (limited). VIC · effective 2026-08-13 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence liability condition: The general builder classes (low rise, medium rise and open) carry no insurance condition. Among builder classes only builder — project management services requires professional indemnity insurance. Home warranty scheme cover is separate and applies per job. QLD · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: No insurance evidence is required for the low rise, medium rise or open builder classes; an MFR report or declaration accompanies the application. A certificate of currency and statutory declaration are required only for builder — project management services. QLD · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Queensland Building and Construction Commission licenses builders. The classes are builder — low rise, builder — medium rise, builder — open and builder project management services, plus four restricted classes. QLD · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: Building contractor registration is assessed on financial capacity rather than insurance: the Board generally requires access to a minimum of $50,000 in cash or cash equivalent and a quick ratio of at least 1:1. Home indemnity insurance is separate and applies per residential job. WA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: Applicants lodge the application form matching their business structure, a Management and Supervision Questionnaire and a Business Profile Information statement with financial information. No certificate of currency is requested. WA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Building Services Board registers builders under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011. The contracting class is builder contractor, available to an individual, partnership or company. WA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: No public liability condition is stated for a South Australian building work contractor's licence. The only insurance named is per-job building indemnity insurance: builders working in major residential construction must attach a certificate of eligibility to the licence application. SA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: Builders working in major residential construction must attach a certificate of eligibility for building indemnity insurance to the application. Industrial, commercial and civil builders instead declare that they have the financial resources for the business. SA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Consumer and Business Services issues the building work contractor's licence under the Building Work Contractors Act 1995. A separate building work supervisor registration is required for the person supervising the work, and sole traders normally hold both. SA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: A Tasmanian Builder (General construction) licence requires public liability insurance limited at not less than $5 million for any one claim, plus contract works insurance. Demolisher and fire protection services classes carry their own combinations. TAS · effective 2024-09-12 Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: A certificate of currency of insurance must be uploaded for both new builder licence applications and renewals, and builders must also provide evidence of contract works insurance. Tax invoices are not accepted as proof of cover. TAS · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Administrator of Occupational Licensing, through Consumer, Building and Occupational Services, issues Tasmanian builder licences under the Occupational Licensing Act 2005 as a category of building services provider licence. The classes are domestic, low rise, medium rise and open. TAS · effective 2024-09-12 Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: No public liability or professional indemnity condition attaches to the ACT builder licence. A separate per-job residential building insurance policy or fidelity certificate covers prescribed residential work, with a maximum cover of $85,000. ACT · effective 2026-08-13 ACT Construction Occupations Registrar · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: Applications require a training qualification, statements of building work experience and a criminal history check no more than six months old, with no insurance item. Builders must show a client evidence of their insurance before providing a service. ACT · effective 2026-08-13 ACT Construction Occupations Registrar · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Licences are issued by the ACT Construction Occupations Registrar. There are four classes of builder licence: class A (unlimited), class B (medium rise), class C (low rise residential) and class D. Owner-builder is a separate licence. ACT · effective 2026-08-13 ACT Construction Occupations Registrar · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition attaches to building contractor registration; the financial condition is at least $50,000 in net tangible assets. The determination confining $1,000,000 professional indemnity to certifiers, engineers, certifying architects and certifying plumber and drainer (design) excludes all building contractor categories. NT · effective 2025-09-05 NT Building Practitioners Board · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: Building contractor applicants must provide an original net tangible assets certificate from their accountant showing at least $50,000, maintained for the whole registration. No insurance certificate is required for that category. NT · effective 2026-08-13 NT Building Practitioners Board · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Building Practitioners Board registers builders under the Building Act 1993. The categories are building contractor residential (restricted and unrestricted) and building contractor commercial (restricted and unrestricted), commercial registration having applied from 15 April 2025. NT · effective 2025-04-15 NT Building Practitioners Board · 2026-08-13

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources