Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Surveyors: cyber liability requirements in Australia

Cover for the costs of a data breach or cyber incident, including response, restoration and third-party liability.

Data as at

Verified requirements, by state

  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition. Insurance, insured and indemnity return zero across the complete Surveying and Spatial Information Act 2002. Registration procedure is imported from the uniform procedures legislation, and no insurance appears anywhere in the registration or renewal machinery. The accompanying Regulation could not be retrieved, so a subordinate requirement cannot be entirely ruled out. NSW · effective 2026-08-25 Board of Surveying and Spatial Information NSW · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None in the Act. The one automatic removal trigger it does contain is about money rather than cover: the Board must remove a registered surveyor's name from the register if the registration administration fee is not paid on or before 31 August in any year. NSW · effective 2026-08-25 Board of Surveying and Spatial Information NSW · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Board of Surveying and Spatial Information (BOSSI), under the Surveying and Spatial Information Act 2002 (NSW). Registration is renewed annually and carries mandatory continuing professional development. NSW · effective 2026-08-24 Board of Surveying and Spatial Information NSW · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition. Insurance, insured and indemnity return zero across the complete Surveying Act 2004. The registration gateway is examination, practical training and an approved course, and what must accompany an application is an address, information required by the Board, evidence of qualifications and training, the fee and the class sought — insurance is not among them. The Board does have a general power to impose any condition, limitation or restriction it thinks appropriate at registration or renewal, so a condition could in principle be imposed, but nothing in the Act requires one. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Nothing in the Act. Whether the Board asks for anything as a matter of policy under its general conditions power was not established. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Surveyors Registration Board of Victoria registers licensed surveyors under the Surveying Act 2004. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, with a figure in the Regulation — and this is worth noting because the equivalent question in New South Wales could NOT be answered from published sources. Queensland prescribes professional indemnity insurance of at least $1 million for an individual, and at least $1 million for a corporation. QLD · effective 2014-09-01 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: At registration, for individuals and corporations alike. QLD · effective 2014-09-01 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Surveyors Board of Queensland, under the Surveyors Act 2003 (Qld) and the Surveyors Regulation 2014 (Qld). QLD · effective 2014-09-01 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, expressed as a power to refuse rather than as a flat requirement: the Board may refuse to renew a practising certificate except to a licensed surveyor who satisfies the Board that they hold a valid current certificate of insurance for the category of practice they intend to engage in. The cover must match the CATEGORY of practice, not merely exist. WA · effective 1990-07-01 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: A valid current certificate of insurance, at practising certificate renewal, matched to the category of practice. WA · effective 1990-07-01 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Land Surveyors Licensing Board, under the Licensed Surveyors Act 1909 (WA) and the Licensed Surveyors (Licensing and Registration) Regulations 1990 (WA). WA · effective 1990-07-01 Western Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, but structured unlike anywhere else in the country. Section 19 of the Survey Act 1992 provides that a surveyor must not practise surveying unless an agreement is in force between the surveyor and a person approved by the Institution of Surveyors, and the Institution is satisfied that by virtue of that agreement the surveyor will be compensated to the extent required by the Institution in the event that the surveyor suffers loss by reason of civil liability incurred in the practice of surveying. The word insurance does not appear in the Act at all — the obligation is an approved indemnity arrangement mediated by the professional body, with the adequacy standard set by the Institution rather than by a figure in the statute. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: The agreement must be in force at all times the surveyor practises. The Institution of Surveyors, not the Act, sets the level and is the body that has to be satisfied of it. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Surveyors in South Australia practise under the Survey Act 1992, and the Institution of Surveyors has a statutory role in the indemnity requirement rather than a purely professional one. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition. The word insurance appears nowhere in the Surveyors Act 2002. Nor is there a subordinate requirement: the Surveyors Regulations 2014 are postponed and not in force under section 46A of the Act. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance requirement in the Surveyors Act 2002 for evidence to attach to. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Land surveyors in Tasmania are registered under the Surveyors Act 2002, administered through the Surveyor-General and the surveyors board. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition attaches to registration as a surveyor in the ACT. The words insurance and indemnity appear nowhere in the Surveyors Act 2007. The Act's only express registration condition, at section 9, is that the surveyor undertakes continuing professional development. The professional indemnity requirements that do exist in ACT construction licensing sit in the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Regulation 2004 and attach to building surveyors, assessors and certifiers — a different scheme and a different occupation. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance requirement in the Surveyors Act 2007 for evidence to attach to. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Land surveyors are registered under the Surveyors Act 2007, administered through the Surveyor-General. This is the cadastral surveying register, and is separate from the building surveyor, building assessor and certifier classes licensed under the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004. ACT · effective 2026-08-24 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition. The word insurance appears nowhere in the Licensed Surveyors Act 1983, including the qualification for registration provision at section 25. The grounds for cancelling or suspending registration at section 33 are fraud, criminal conviction, unsoundness of mind, drunkenness, and inaccurate or negligent surveying — there is no insurance ground at all. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance requirement in the Licensed Surveyors Act 1983 for evidence to attach to. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: The Surveyors Board of the Northern Territory of Australia, established by section 8(1) of the Licensed Surveyors Act 1983, registers licensed surveyors. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

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