Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Electricians: 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 insurance condition or minimum limit attaches to a NSW electrical licence. Home building compensation cover is required for each home building project over $20,000 including GST, which is a per-project obligation rather than a licence condition. NSW · effective 2026-08-13 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: A certificate of eligibility to obtain insurance, where applicable, is listed among the supporting documents for a contractor licence application lodged with Service NSW. No insurance evidence is listed at renewal. NSW · effective 2026-08-13 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Building Commission NSW issues NSW electrical licences, with applications lodged through Service NSW. The classes are individual contractor licence, company or partnership contractor licence, qualified supervisor certificate and provisional tradesperson certificate. NSW · effective 2026-08-13 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: Registered electrical contractors must hold current public liability insurance with a minimum cover of $5 million against personal injury or property damage in connection with their electrical contracting work. Carrying out contracting work without it is an offence. VIC · effective 2026-08-13 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence evidence required: Applicants make an insurance declaration acknowledging the requirements rather than lodging a certificate. The contractor must produce evidence that the required cover is held whenever Energy Safe requests it. VIC · effective 2026-08-13 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licensing body: Energy Safe Victoria registers electrical contractors under the Electricity Safety Act 1998. The class is registered electrical contractor, issued to an individual, partnership or company, each needing a technical and a business supervisor. VIC · effective 2026-08-13 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence liability condition: An electrical contractor's licence requires the holder to carry a current policy of insurance against civil liability for electrical contracting work, with a reputable insurer. The regulator publishes no minimum dollar limit; the standard is set by the Electrical Licensing Board. WA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: A certificate of currency for public liability insurance, issued or printed within the last 30 days and in the legal entity name rather than a trust or trading name, must be supplied with the application, and insurance details are required again at renewal. WA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Electrical Licensing Board issues the electrical contractor's licence in Western Australia. Licensing is administered by Building and Energy within the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety. WA · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: No public liability insurance condition is stated for a South Australian electrical contractor's licence or electrical worker registration. The published grant criteria are qualifications, experience, at least $10,000 in net assets and a police check. SA · effective 2026-08-13 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: Supporting documents, a photograph and an identity check are required at application. No evidence of insurance is listed among the supporting documents for an electrical contractor's licence or worker registration. SA · effective 2026-08-13 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Consumer and Business Services licenses electrical work under the Plumbers, Gas Fitters and Electricians Act 1995. A contractor licence is required to contract for the work and a worker registration to physically perform it. SA · effective 2025-09-01 Consumer and Business Services SA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: A Tasmanian electrical contractor's licence requires public and products liability insurance of at least $5 million, listed as an eligibility requirement. The practitioner licence states no insurance requirement. TAS · effective 2026-08-13 Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: A certificate of currency must be uploaded when applying for and when renewing a trades contractor licence. Invoices, policy schedules and letters of eligibility are not accepted and may delay or lead to refusal of the application. 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 electrical licences under the Occupational Licensing Act 2005. The classes are practitioner, contractor, provisional and restricted. TAS · effective 2016-12-07 Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition attaches to an ACT electrician licence or permit; eligibility is qualification-based. The licensing regulation attaches insurance eligibility to four other occupations only: building assessor, building surveyor, plumbing plan certifier and works assessor. ACT · effective 2026-02-23 ACT Construction Occupations Registrar · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: No insurance evidence is lodged with the regulator. Instead, before providing a construction service a licensee must give the client evidence of what insurance is held, including telling the client if none is held; advertising the cover counts as compliance. ACT · effective 2026-02-23 ACT Construction Occupations Registrar · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Licences are issued by the ACT Construction Occupations Registrar under the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004. There are six classes of electrical licence, the broadest being the unrestricted electrician, plus supervised permit classes. ACT · effective 2026-08-13 ACT Construction Occupations Registrar · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: An electrical contractor licence requires at least $5,000,000 of public and products liability insurance for liability arising from personal injury or property damage from the electrical work performed under the licence. Individual work licences carry no insurance condition. NT · effective 2026-08-13 NT Building Practitioners Board · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: Evidence of at least $5,000,000 of public and products liability insurance must be attached to the electrical contractor licence application, alongside proof of identity and business extracts. No insurance evidence is required for electrical work licences. NT · effective 2026-08-13 NT Building Practitioners Board · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Electrical Safety Regulator within NT WorkSafe issues electrical licences under the Electrical Safety Act 2022. The Electrical Workers and Contractors Licensing Board was abolished and licensing transferred to the regulator. The four types are unrestricted, restricted, contractor and in-house. NT · effective 2024-07-01 NT Building Practitioners Board · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: A Queensland electrical contractor licence requires a policy in the legal name of the business including public and products liability with a limit of indemnity of at least $5,000,000 and consumer protection insurance of at least $50,000, meeting Section 51 of the Electrical Safety Regulation. QLD · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: The applicant confirms with their insurer that the policy complies with s51 of the ES Regulation and declares it; a copy of the policy is not lodged. The Electrical Safety Office conducts periodic audits, and on audit the contractor must produce the policy or written confirmation from the insurer. QLD · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Electrical contractor licences in Queensland sit with the Electrical Safety Office, whose official home is the WorkSafe Queensland site alongside Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and Workers' Compensation Regulatory Services. The licence is called an electrical contractor licence. QLD · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13

By state and territory

Licensing is a state matter, so the requirement behind this cover changes at the border. These pages track the licence question in each jurisdiction.

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