Compliance guide · Updated 31 August 2026
Security Licensing for Locksmiths, State by State
There is no national locksmith licence in Australia. Each state and territory runs its own security industry Act, its own regulator and its own set of licence classes, and whether the work you do falls inside one of those classes depends on what you actually sell: cutting a key, opening a car, installing an alarm and monitoring it are four different regulatory answers in most jurisdictions. This is the map of who regulates you, what they check, and the records that are expected of a locksmith everywhere regardless of the licence.
Start here
What is true in every state, whatever your licence says
The licensing answer moves at the border. These four do not, and between them they cover most of what a locksmith is actually held to when something goes wrong.
Probity, not just competence
Every security industry Act in the country runs a criminal history and fit-and-proper-person test on the licence holder, and most run it again at renewal. A disclosable outcome does not automatically end an application, but a non-disclosure usually does. Directors and, in several states, close associates are inside the test as well as the technician.
Restricted keyway authority
A restricted or patented key system is contractual as well as legal. The manufacturer authorises a named locksmith to cut that profile, the authority is auditable, and cutting a restricted key outside the authority is the fastest way to lose both the profile and the customer. Hold the authority letter with the system record, not in the manufacturer's portal alone.
A key register that survives the job
For every master key system: who holds which key, which cylinders it operates, when each key was issued and when it came back. When a building changes hands or a staff member leaves without returning a key, this register is the difference between a rekey of one cylinder and a rekey of the site.
Identification before entry
Opening a locked door for someone who is not entitled to be behind it is the trade's core exposure. Record what identification you sighted, what connected the person to the address or the vehicle, and who authorised the job. The note takes thirty seconds and is the only thing that helps six months later.
State by state
The Act and the regulator, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
Read your own row first, then the row for any state you take work in. Licence classes are set by regulation under these Acts and are reviewed more often than the Acts themselves, so confirm your specific class with the regulator rather than assuming it carries across a border. Mutual recognition exists between jurisdictions but it is an application with a processing time, not an automatic transfer.
New South Wales
- Legislation
- Security Industry Act 1997 and the Security Industry Regulation
NSW licenses the security industry through the police rather than a consumer agency, which makes the probity side of the application unusually thorough. The Act separates the master licence held by a business that provides security activities from the individual licence held by the person carrying them out, and the classes distinguish selling and installing security equipment from guarding and monitoring. A locksmith whose work extends into alarms, access control or CCTV is squarely inside that equipment class.
- Master licence for the business, individual licence for each person doing the work
- Criminal history and fit-and-proper assessment run by NSW Police, including close associates
- Classes distinguish sell, install and maintain security equipment from guarding and monitoring
- Training through a registered training organisation is the usual competency pathway
Victoria
- Legislation
- Private Security Act 2004
Victoria splits the industry into licensed activities and registered activities, and runs both through Victoria Police. The distinction matters commercially: a registration is cheaper and faster than a licence but covers a narrower band of work. Businesses that employ or sub-contract others need the business licence in their own name, and the individual doing the work needs their own.
- Private security business licence for the entity, individual licence or registration for the operator
- Licensed and registered activities are separate categories with different application paths
- Criminal history and fit-and-proper assessment, revisited at renewal
- Installing and servicing security equipment is treated separately from guarding work
Queensland
- Legislation
- Security Providers Act 1993
- Regulator
- Office of Fair Trading Queensland
Queensland runs security licensing through Fair Trading rather than the police, with the police supplying the criminal history side. Licences are issued as security firm licences to businesses and security provider licences to individuals, in classes tied to the activity. Queensland is also the state where the difference between installing a lock and installing a monitored alarm most clearly changes which class you need.
- Security firm licence for the business, security provider licence for the individual
- Classes are activity based, so the class follows the work rather than the trade name
- Criminal history check administered with the Queensland Police Service
- Australian Consumer Law obligations sit alongside the licence for consumer callout work
Western Australia
- Legislation
- Security and Related Activities (Control) Act 1996
Western Australia licenses security agents, security officers, security installers and security consultants under one Act administered by WA Police. The installer and consultant categories are the ones a locksmith most often falls into once the work moves past mechanical hardware. WA is a long way from the eastern states in practice as well as distance: an eastern-state licence needs a mutual recognition application before you work here.
- Agent, officer, installer and consultant categories under a single Act
- Licensing administered by WA Police, with criminal history and probity checks
- Installer and consultant categories cover most electronic security work
- Interstate licences require a mutual recognition application before starting work
South Australia
- Legislation
- Security and Investigation Industry Act 1995
- Regulator
- Consumer and Business Services
South Australia licenses security and investigation agents through Consumer and Business Services, with the licence issued to the agent and registration required for the people the agent employs to do the work. The Act covers a broad set of security activities, so the practical question for a locksmith is which of those activities their service list touches rather than whether the Act applies at all.
- Security agent licence for the business, registration for employed operatives
- Criminal history and fit-and-proper assessment by Consumer and Business Services
- Activity conditions are recorded on the licence, so read the conditions not just the class
- The same regulator handles consumer complaints, so licence and conduct sit in one place
Tasmania
- Legislation
- Security and Investigation Agents Act 2002
Tasmania licenses security agents and their employees through Consumer, Building and Occupational Services. The scheme is smaller than the mainland ones and the classes are correspondingly broader, which means the licence conditions recorded on your own licence do more of the work than the class name does. Read them at issue and again at renewal.
- Security agent licence with employee registration under the same Act
- Criminal history and fit-and-proper assessment through CBOS
- Conditions on the licence define scope more than the class name does
- Same regulator also administers occupational licensing for the building trades
Australian Capital Territory
- Legislation
- Security Industry Act 2003
- Regulator
- Access Canberra
The ACT licenses the security industry through Access Canberra under its own Act, with master licences for businesses and employee licences for individuals. Work crosses the NSW border constantly here, and the two schemes are separate instruments: a NSW licence does not operate in the territory of its own accord, and the reverse is also true.
- Master licence for the business, employee licence for the individual
- Criminal history and fit-and-proper assessment through Access Canberra
- A NSW licence is not an ACT licence, and cross-border work needs both or a recognition application
- Territory consumer protection obligations apply to residential callout work
Northern Territory
- Legislation
- Private Security Act 1995
- Regulator
- NT Consumer Affairs, Licensing NT
The Northern Territory licenses crowd controllers, security officers and security firms under the Private Security Act, administered through Licensing NT. Distance is the operational complication: remote callouts stretch response commitments, and a key system for a remote site is much more expensive to recover from a lost key than an urban one, so the register discipline matters more here rather than less.
- Security firm licence for the business, individual licence for the operator
- Criminal history and fit-and-proper assessment through Licensing NT
- Remote work stretches response times, so publish what you can actually meet
- Plan key recovery for remote sites before issuing the system, not after a key goes missing
What to hold
What a locksmith should have on file for every job
This is the record set that answers the two questions that actually get asked later: were you entitled to open it, and who now holds a key.
Who authorised the entry
Name, relationship to the property or vehicle, and what identification you sighted. For a rental, whether it was the tenant or the agent, and which one authorised the charge.
Photographs before and after
The hardware as you found it and as you left it. On a forced entry this is the difference between a damage claim you can answer and one you cannot.
Every key issued, by number
Key stamp, cylinder or door it operates, who took it and when. A master key system without an issue log is a rekey waiting to happen.
The restricted system authority
The manufacturer's authority letter for any restricted or patented profile you cut, held against the customer's system record so a new staff member cannot cut outside it.
Licence numbers on the paperwork
Your security licence number and your ABN on the quote and the invoice. Insurers and strata managers increasingly ask for the number before they approve the work, not after.
Warranty and consumer guarantee terms
What is covered and for how long, in writing on the invoice. Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to the work regardless of what your terms say, so say something consistent with them.
What goes wrong
The recurring exposures
None of these are about skill. They are about what was written down at the time, and they are the ones that turn into a complaint or a claim.
Opening a door on a phone call alone
No identification sighted, no note of who authorised it. This is the single largest exposure in the trade and it costs nothing to close.
Assuming your licence travels
Eight Acts, eight regulators. Mutual recognition is an application with a lead time. Quote the interstate job, then check the licence, then book the date.
A key register that lives in one person's head
The register is worth exactly as much as the next person's ability to read it. If it is not written against the customer record it does not exist.
Cutting outside the restricted authority
Fast, tempting on a Friday afternoon, and terminal for the profile. The manufacturer audits it and the customer finds out.
Letting the licence lapse quietly
Renewal dates are annual or biennial depending on the state, and probity is usually re-run at renewal. Working a week past expiry is unlicensed work, whatever the reason.
No written scope on an access control job
Once the work includes electronic hardware the job stops being one visit. Without a written scope the variation conversation happens after the invoice, which is the worst possible time.
Questions
Common questions
Is there one locksmith licence that works across Australia?
No. Security industry licensing is state and territory law, under eight separate Acts with eight separate regulators, and there is no single national locksmith licence. Mutual recognition schemes let a licence holder in one jurisdiction apply for the equivalent in another, but that is an application with its own processing time and its own conditions, not an automatic right to start work the day you cross the border.
Which regulator handles security licensing in my state?
It depends on whether your jurisdiction put the scheme with the police or with the consumer agency. NSW, Victoria and Western Australia license through their police forces. Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania license through their consumer or fair trading bodies. The ACT licenses through Access Canberra and the Northern Territory through Licensing NT within Consumer Affairs. Each row above links the specific page.
Do I need a security licence just to cut keys and change cylinders?
That depends entirely on how your state's regulations define the licensed activities, which is why this page names the Act and links the regulator rather than giving one answer for the country. As a rule of thumb, the further your service list moves from mechanical hardware toward alarms, monitoring, access control and CCTV, the more likely you sit inside a licensed class. Confirm your specific activities with the regulator before you advertise them.
What is a restricted keyway authority and why does it matter commercially?
A restricted or patented key profile is controlled by its manufacturer, who authorises named locksmiths to cut it. The authority is the reason a building manager can trust that nobody walked into a hardware store and copied a master key. Cutting outside your authority breaches the manufacturer agreement, and because these systems are audited it usually ends both the authority and the client relationship. Keep the authority letter attached to the customer's system record so any technician can see the boundary.
What should I record before opening a lockout?
Who asked, what connects them to the property or vehicle, what identification you sighted, and who is paying. For a rental, note whether the tenant or the managing agent authorised it. Take a photograph of the hardware before you touch it and after you finish. The whole record takes under a minute on a phone and it is the only evidence that exists if the entitlement is later disputed.
How does a master key register save money on a rekey?
Because it turns a site-wide rekey into a single-cylinder one. When a key goes missing, the question is which cylinders that key operated. With a register you rekey those and reissue to the named holders. Without one you have to assume the worst and rekey everything the system could reach, which on a commercial site is the difference between an afternoon and a week.
Sources
Where each row came from
Every claim above traces to one of these. They are the pages to re-read on the next annual sweep, and the pages to check first if your own situation is unusual.
- NSW Police Force, Security Industry Registry
- Victoria Police, private security licensing
- Queensland Government, security providers licensing
- Western Australia Police Force, security and related activities
- Consumer and Business Services SA, security and investigation agents
- Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania, security and investigation agents
- Access Canberra, security industry licensing
- NT Consumer Affairs, private security licensing
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, consumer guarantees on services
Keep reading
Related guides
Locksmith software
Dispatch emergency lockouts, quote rekeys, invoice on site, and keep the entry record on the job instead of in a notebook.
Tradie insurance guide
Public liability, tools and workers compensation cover, and what an insurer looks for after a forced entry goes wrong.
Trade licence requirements by state
The wider trade licensing map, for locksmiths whose work runs into door hardware, glazing or building work.
Tradie quote calculator
Work out a callout fee and an hourly rate that survive travel time and after-hours work, before you publish them.
About the author
Bishal Shrestha
Founder & CEO, OneBookPlus
Bishal spent a decade running digital projects for Australian small businesses before founding OneBookPlus. He writes and maintains these pages, and publishes what OneBookPlus does not do alongside what it does.
Read the founder bioHow this page was researched
The state-by-state figures on this page come from each state and territory regulator directly, linked in the row they belong to, because the rule differs by jurisdiction and a national summary would be wrong in six places. Everything said about OneBookPlus describes what the product does today.
Put the entry record, the key register and the licence number on the job
Who authorised the entry, what identification you sighted, before and after photos, and every key issued by number, all against the customer record rather than a notebook in the van. Your security licence number and ABN print on the quote and the invoice. Free to start, no card.
Last reviewed and updated: by Bishal Shrestha