Compliance guide · Updated 31 August 2026
Do Painters Need a Licence? The Answer by State
Painting is one of the few trades where the honest answer changes completely at the border. Some states license painting as a trade in its own right above a dollar threshold. Others fold it into a general building work licence. A few do not license it at all and rely on consumer law and work health and safety duties instead. Below is which applies where, and then the four obligations that follow you into every state regardless of whether anyone issued you a card.
Start here
Four duties that follow you across every border
Whether or not your state issues a painter's licence, these apply. They are also the four that turn into a regulator visit or an insurance argument, so they are worth more attention than the licence question itself.
Lead paint on pre-1970 housing
Paint used in Australian housing before the 1970s can contain lead at levels that make sanding and heat-stripping genuinely dangerous, and the risk lands on the occupants as much as the crew. AS 4361.2 is the standard for lead paint management in residential and commercial buildings. Test before you disturb a surface on an older house, contain the work area, and never dry-sand a suspect surface with an orbital.
Working at height
The model Work Health and Safety Regulations treat a fall risk as a hazard to be managed by control, not by care. Ladders, trestles and roof edges are where painters get hurt, and a written safe work method statement is required for high risk construction work including work where a person could fall more than two metres.
Dust, silica and isocyanates
Sanding render, patching compound and old coatings generates respirable dust, and two-pack products used on cabinetry and metalwork carry isocyanate exposure that ordinary dust masks do not address. Match the respirator to the product, not to the habit, and keep the safety data sheets where the crew can actually reach them.
Waste, wash water and stormwater
Paint, solvent and wash water are not stormwater. Every state environment regulator treats a discharge to a gutter or a drain as a pollution event, and the fines are per incident. Wash out into a contained vessel, dispose through a licensed waste path, and keep the receipt.
State by state
Licensing, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
Where a dollar threshold decides whether you need a licence, treat the figure as something to confirm rather than something to rely on. Thresholds are set by regulation, they move, and the regulator's own page is linked on every row below. If you contract across a border, read the row for the state the work is in, not the state your ABN is registered in.
New South Wales
- Legislation
- Home Building Act 1989
- Regulator
- NSW Fair Trading
New South Wales licenses painting as a specialist trade. Residential building work above a dollar threshold set by regulation requires a contractor licence in the painting category, and the threshold is low enough that most ordinary repaints sit above it. Above a second, higher threshold the job also needs home building compensation cover before you take a deposit or start work.
- Trade contractor licence in the painting category, issued by NSW Fair Trading
- A dollar threshold decides when the licence is required, confirm the current figure
- Home building compensation cover is required above a separate higher threshold
- Written contract requirements and cooling-off rules apply to residential work
Queensland
- Legislation
- Queensland Building and Construction Commission Act 1991
Queensland licenses painting and decorating as a trade contractor licence class through the QBCC, above a dollar threshold for building work. The QBCC also runs financial requirements for licensees, which catches growing businesses by surprise more often than the trade test does: the licence carries maximum revenue tiers, and exceeding your tier without moving up is a breach in its own right.
- Painting and decorating trade contractor licence issued by the QBCC
- A dollar threshold for building work decides when the licence applies, confirm the figure
- Financial requirements and maximum revenue tiers attach to the licence
- The Queensland Home Warranty Scheme applies to residential work above its own threshold
South Australia
- Legislation
- Building Work Contractors Act 1995
- Regulator
- Consumer and Business Services
South Australia treats painting as building work, so a painting business contracting directly with a consumer generally needs a building work contractor's licence with painting on it, and the individual doing the work needs the corresponding registration. Consumer and Business Services issues both, and the licence conditions rather than the class name define what you may contract for.
- Building work contractor's licence with painting endorsed, for the entity
- Building work supervisor registration for the person supervising the work
- Read the conditions on your own licence, they define scope more than the class does
- Statutory warranties on domestic building work apply regardless of contract wording
Victoria
- Legislation
- Building Act 1993 and the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995
- Regulator
- Victorian Building Authority
Victoria does not run a standalone painter's licence. Painting is instead caught by the domestic building framework: above a dollar threshold, domestic building work requires registration as a building practitioner in the appropriate category, and above a separate threshold it requires domestic building insurance before work starts. Small repaints usually sit below both, larger residential contracts frequently do not.
- No separate painting licence, the domestic building framework applies instead
- Registration as a building practitioner is required above a dollar threshold
- Domestic building insurance is required above a separate higher threshold
- Written major domestic building contract requirements apply above the contract threshold
Western Australia
- Legislation
- Building Services (Registration) Act 2011
Western Australia does not license painting as a trade. Registration under the building services framework attaches to builders and building surveyors rather than to painting contractors, so a painting business in WA is regulated primarily through consumer law, work health and safety duties and, where it works on a building site, the site's own induction requirements. Home indemnity insurance obligations sit with the builder on residential work above the threshold.
- No painter registration category under the building services framework
- Australian Consumer Law guarantees carry the customer-facing obligations
- Work health and safety duties still apply in full, including height and lead paint controls
- On residential building work, home indemnity insurance sits with the registered builder
Tasmania
- Legislation
- Building Act 2016 and the Occupational Licensing Act 2005
Tasmania licenses building services providers and a set of occupations that does not include painting as its own class. A painting business therefore contracts under general consumer law and work health and safety obligations, with building work obligations reaching it only where the painting forms part of a larger licensed building project.
- Painting is not a separately licensed occupation in Tasmania
- Obligations flow through consumer law and work health and safety duties
- Where painting forms part of larger building work, the builder's obligations apply to the project
- CBOS handles both occupational licensing and consumer complaints
Australian Capital Territory
- Legislation
- Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004
- Regulator
- Access Canberra
The ACT licenses construction occupations including builders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters, and does not list painting as a separate construction occupation. Cross-border work is the practical issue instead: a painter operating from Canberra into Queanbeyan and the surrounding NSW shires is doing work in New South Wales and needs to satisfy the NSW rules for it.
- Painting is not a separately licensed construction occupation in the ACT
- Work performed across the NSW border is governed by the NSW Home Building Act
- Territory consumer protection and work health and safety obligations apply in full
- Government and commercial contracts often impose their own prequalification anyway
Northern Territory
- Legislation
- Building Act 1993 (NT)
The Northern Territory registers building practitioners in categories that do not include painting, so painting contractors are not separately licensed. Residential building work certification and insurance obligations sit with the registered builder on the project. The practical constraints in the Territory are climate and remoteness rather than licensing: surface preparation and recoat intervals in the wet season are the thing that gets specified wrong.
- Painting is not a registered building practitioner category in the NT
- Residential building certification and insurance sit with the registered builder
- Consumer law and work health and safety duties apply in full
- Write recoat intervals and weather conditions into the quote, not just the product
What to hold
What belongs on a painting quote that survives a dispute
Most painting disputes are about scope, not workmanship. These six lines resolve almost all of them before they start.
Surfaces in and surfaces out
Which rooms, which elevations, ceilings yes or no, trim yes or no, inside of cupboards yes or no. Name the exclusions explicitly rather than leaving them to be inferred.
Preparation specified as work, not as an assumption
Wash, scrape, fill, sand, prime, and how many of each. Preparation is most of the labour and the first thing a customer assumes was included at the low price.
Coats and product by name
Two coats of a named product over a named primer. A quote that says two coats without naming the system invites a comparison against a cheaper system that is not the same job.
Lead paint testing and containment as a line
On pre-1970 housing, price the test and the containment separately. If it turns out to be needed and was not quoted, it becomes a variation argument in the middle of the job.
Access, height and equipment
Scaffold, elevated work platform or ladder access, and who provides it. Access is the item most often assumed by both parties and priced by neither.
Colour approval and the cost of a change
When colours are locked, and what a change after that point costs. Late colour changes are the most common source of unpaid extra coats.
What goes wrong
Where painting businesses get caught
These come up again and again, and every one of them is cheaper to prevent than to argue about.
Quoting a per-square-metre rate over unseen preparation
The rate assumes a substrate. Old weatherboards, failed render and flaking window frames are not the same job as new plasterboard, and the rate cannot absorb the difference.
Crossing a border without checking the licence rule
A Victorian painter taking a residential job in New South Wales is doing work under the NSW Home Building Act, licence threshold and all. Where the ABN lives is irrelevant.
Dry sanding an old house
Fast, and the worst possible way to handle a surface that may carry lead paint. Test first on anything from before the 1970s, and contain the area if it comes back positive.
Washing out into the gutter
One of the easiest pollution offences to witness and report, and the fine is per incident. Contain the wash and dispose of it through a licensed path.
No written variation for colour changes
A change from a light colour over a dark one can add a coat across a whole house. If the change is not written down, the extra coat is free.
Letting a licence tier fall behind the revenue
In states that attach financial requirements to a trade licence, outgrowing the tier is a breach even when the work is flawless. Review the tier when the revenue moves, not at renewal.
Questions
Common questions
Which Australian states license painting as its own trade?
New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia are the states where a painting business contracting directly with a consumer generally needs a licence of its own: a painting trade contractor licence in NSW, a painting and decorating trade contractor licence through the QBCC in Queensland, and a building work contractor's licence with painting endorsed in South Australia. Victoria catches painting through the domestic building framework above a threshold rather than a painter-specific licence, and Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory do not license painting as a separate trade at all.
Does the dollar threshold include materials or just labour?
In the jurisdictions that use one, the threshold is normally the total contract price for the work including both labour and materials and including GST, not the labour component alone. That is why the thresholds catch more jobs than painters expect: a repaint priced at labour alone might sit under it while the same job with paint supplied sits over it. Confirm the current figure and its basis with the regulator linked in your row before you rely on it.
I am licensed in one state and have been offered work in another. Does my licence travel?
Not automatically. Licensing follows the location of the work, not the address of the business, so a job in another state is governed by that state's Act. Mutual recognition schemes let a licence holder apply for the equivalent licence in another jurisdiction, but it is an application with a processing time and its own conditions. Check the requirement before you book the dates, because the licence is usually the long pole.
How do I know whether a house has lead paint?
Age is the first filter: Australian housing painted before the 1970s can carry lead, and the older the paint layers the higher the likely concentration. Age alone is not proof, so test the actual surfaces you intend to disturb with a testing kit or a laboratory sample before you start. AS 4361.2 sets out how lead paint should be managed in buildings. If it tests positive, the work becomes containment work, and it belongs in the quote as its own line rather than absorbed into the preparation rate.
Do I need a White Card to paint on a construction site?
Yes, if you are entering a construction site. General construction induction training, which is what the White Card records, is required by the work health and safety regulations in every Australian jurisdiction for anyone carrying out construction work. It is a one-off nationally recognised card. Residential repaint work in an occupied home is not a construction site, but a new build, an extension in progress or a commercial fit-out generally is, and site access will be refused without it.
What insurance does a painting business actually need?
Public liability is the one every commercial client and most homeowners will ask to see, and the sums insured commonly requested run to ten or twenty million dollars on commercial sites. If you have employees, workers compensation is compulsory in every state through that state's scheme. Tool cover matters more for painters than most trades because the spray equipment is the expensive part. In states with a home warranty or home building compensation scheme, cover for residential work above the threshold is separate again and is bought per job.
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 Fair Trading, home building licences
- Queensland Building and Construction Commission, licensing
- Consumer and Business Services SA, building work contractors
- Victorian Building Authority, registration and domestic building work
- Building and Energy WA, building services registration
- Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania
- Access Canberra, construction occupations licensing
- Northern Territory Government, building and development
- Safe Work Australia, model WHS Regulations and managing the risk of falls
- Standards Australia, AS 4361.2 Guide to lead paint management
Keep reading
Related guides
Painting business software
Quote interior repaints and exterior weatherboards, track materials markup, schedule the crew, and invoice on site.
Trade licence requirements by state
The same map for the other trades on the job, useful when the repaint is one part of a larger renovation.
Tradie insurance guide
Public liability sums insured, workers compensation, tool cover and home warranty, and what each one actually answers for.
Building and Construction Award rates
MA000020 classifications, allowances and penalties for the painters and apprentices on your books.
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.
Quote the preparation, not just the coats
Build an itemised quote with surfaces, preparation, product and access as separate lines, get it accepted online, and turn it into a GST invoice with your licence number on it before you leave the site. Free to start, no card.
Last reviewed and updated: by Bishal Shrestha