Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Locksmiths: public liability requirements in Australia

Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.

Data as at

Verified requirements, by state

  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition for this class. The $10 million public liability requirement in the security industry regime is triggered by activities involving the possession of firearms or the use of horses or dogs, and Class 2C work involves none of them. So two licences issued by the same directorate under the same Act carry opposite answers, decided by what the operative actually does. NSW · effective 1998-04-01 NSW Police Force — Security Licensing & Enforcement Directorate · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None for this class, since no insurance condition attaches to it. NSW · effective 1998-04-01 NSW Police Force — Security Licensing & Enforcement Directorate · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The NSW Police Force, through the Security Licensing & Enforcement Directorate, under the Security Industry Act 1997 (NSW). A Class 2C Security Equipment Specialist licence — the same licence that covers security equipment work also covers working as a locksmith, so locksmithing sits inside the security industry licensing regime rather than having one of its own. NSW · effective 1998-04-01 NSW Police Force — Security Licensing & Enforcement Directorate · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and Victoria takes a BROADER approach than New South Wales. Victoria Police require evidence of public liability insurance, as a certificate of currency from the insurer, "showing coverage for the activities and sub-activities applied for". The cover must match the activities on the licence — but unlike NSW, where the condition bites only on master licences supplying armed guards or guard-dog handlers, Victoria applies it to private security BUSINESS licence applications generally. A firm licensed in both states faces the condition in Victoria on work that would not trigger it across the border. VIC · effective 2005-07-01 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: A certificate of currency from the insurer at application, showing cover for the specific activities and sub-activities being applied for. A generic policy that does not name the activities does not satisfy it. VIC · effective 2005-07-01 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Victoria Police, through the Licensing and Regulation Division, under the Private Security Act 2004 (Vic). The scheme covers locksmithing, which Victoria treats as a security activity — the work is licensed under the private security scheme rather than as a separate trade. VIC · effective 2005-07-01 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition. The Security Providers Act 1993 mentions insurance twice and neither is a licence condition — both exempt insurance and insurance adjustment businesses and their employees from needing a private investigator licence. The Security Providers Regulation 2008 returns zero on insurance, insured and indemnity across the complete instrument. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None at application or renewal. Routine residential lock work and key cutting sit outside the licence altogether. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Partly, and the boundary is unusually precise — which makes it worth checking rather than assuming. Mechanical locks fall within the Security Providers Act 1993 definition of security equipment, and safes and vaults are express examples, so alarm, CCTV, access control and larger safe work needs a security equipment installer licence. But the Act carves a lot of ordinary locksmithing back out: a person is not a security equipment installer merely because they carry out retail key cutting, or install a basic security item in a building they own or occupy, or install one in someone else's building during its construction, repair or renovation. A basic security item is a portable safe weighing not more than 50kg, a barrier item such as a security mesh door or window grille, an electronic or mechanical lock used for basic household security such as a door lock, window lock or padlock, or a motion sensor light that does not also activate an alarm. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition was located in the published licensing requirements. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Not established. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: WA Police Licensing Services, under the Security and Related Activities (Control) Act 1996 (WA), through security installer licence classes. The classes are graded by what the work involves: installing safes and locks requires a trade qualification, while a narrower lock-installation class requires no pre-licence test or training course. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Not applicable on the evidence found. With no locksmith licence in South Australia there is no licence for an insurance condition to attach to. A locksmith who also installs or maintains alarm or surveillance systems does need a security agents licence, and that licence carries no insurance condition either. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Not applicable on the evidence found. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Locksmithing is not a distinct licensed occupation in South Australia. The word locksmith does not appear anywhere in the Security and Investigation Industry Act 1995 — the Act most likely to capture it, since it does capture alarm and surveillance installation. Searches of the consumer affairs and work health and safety regulators surfaced only a Certificate III in Locksmithing, which is a training qualification rather than a licence. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition applies. The Security and Investigations Agents Act 2002 imposes none on the licence classes it does create, and no separate licence exists for this trade. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: None located. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Locksmithing is not a named licence class in Tasmania. The security activities defined in the Security and Investigations Agents Act 2002 cover patrolling and guarding, bodyguard work and training in those activities, and no locksmith class appears among the licences the regulator lists. No provision expressly exempting locksmiths was located either, so this rests on the absence of a class rather than on a stated exclusion. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition applies. The Security Industry Act 2003 contains only unexercised powers to require insurance of master licensees, and the current Security Industry Regulation 2003 contains no reference to insurance or indemnity at all. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None. No standing insurance requirement exists in the ACT security industry scheme for evidence to attach to. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Locksmithing is not a separate licence class in the ACT. Work on security equipment falls inside the security activity definition in section 7 of the Security Industry Act 2003, which carves out only a person who installs a lock as part of their occupation as a builder. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition applies to Territory security licensing in any case. The words insurance, insured and indemnity appear zero times across the Private Security Act 1995, the Private Security (Miscellaneous Matters) Regulations 2006 and the Private Security (Crowd Controllers) Regulations 1996. Section 19(1) lets the Director impose whatever conditions the Director thinks fit on an individual licence, so a condition could be imposed case by case, but nothing requires one. NT · effective 2026-08-25 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: None. No insurance requirement is prescribed anywhere in the Territory security instruments for evidence to attach to. NT · effective 2026-08-25 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Locksmithing is not currently a licensed activity in the Northern Territory. The Private Security Act 1995 licenses three categories of security provider — crowd controller, security officer and security firm — and a security officer is defined as a person who, for reward, patrols or guards another person's property. Section 8(1) gives the Minister a power to declare further classes, and it names locksmiths and installers of security systems as the example of what such a declaration could capture. No declaration was found, but a declaration would be a Gazette notice which could not be retrieved, so this is the one point in the Territory security picture that is not fully closed. NT · effective 2026-08-25 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

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