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Cut 1 of 6 · the licence

Do locksmiths need a licence?

In New South Wales and Queensland, yes in most cases: their official pages put locksmith work inside the security licence. Western Australia licenses people who install locks of a kind its regulations refer to, and in the other five states and territories no official page this guide draws on names locksmiths at all.

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General information, not legal advice. The licensing body for your state or territory, linked on this page, has the final word on whether a job needs a licence.

NSWThe Class 2C licence

NSW Police’s Security Licensing and Enforcement Directorate (SLED) says a Class 2 security licence “allows you to work in a wide range of specialist fields in the security industry”, and that those fields include “working as a locksmith”. Of the five Class 2 subclasses, the one that ends with “You can also work as a locksmith” is Class 2C, Security Equipment Specialist.

“Locksmiths must hold a Class 2C licence to work in the security industry.”

NSW Police Force, SLED frequently asked questions

The same answer says no specific training is required to apply for a 2C licence, but that locksmiths must have finished their relevant training.

A 2C licence is not the whole picture for someone in business alone. SLED’s licence conditions say that to carry out any security activity “you must be employed or provided by a master licence holder or hold a master licence yourself”. Its FAQ adds that a self-employed security operative needs both a Master licence and the right operative licence.

Who NSW exempts

Some people may work without a security licence in NSW, “but only while carrying on those occupations, duties or activities”. Two of the exemptions touch locks:

  • Automotive locksmiths. People who install, service, repair or manipulate the locks of a vehicle other than a campervan or motorhome, and only to the extent they do that work.
  • Building and home maintenance. People in building, construction or home maintenance who fit basic security equipment like locks are exempt, but NSW Police says this “does not include locksmiths”, nor tradespeople hired specifically to install, repair or maintain security equipment.

QLDThe security equipment installer licence

Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading says this licence covers installing, repairing, servicing or maintaining equipment that includes “locks for commercial or residential areas”. On locksmiths it is direct: “In most cases you need a licence to be a locksmith.”

The “very limited” exceptions

The page names two: retail key cutting, and fitting basic security items while a building is being built, repaired or renovated. Outside construction, repair or renovation, repairing or replacing basic security items is not exempt, and those items include household locks “even if they’re damaged”. In the page’s words, “tradespeople who remove and reinstall household door locks need a licence unless the building is undergoing construction, repair or renovation.”

A licence is also needed to open someone’s vehicle as a locksmith for payment.

The licence asks for no course (“You don’t need any training to hold this licence”), but the police fingerprint every security provider and each applicant goes through a criminal history check.

What the Act adds

Queensland’s Security Providers Act 1993 lists a security equipment installer among its security providers, and describes one as “a person who, for reward, installs, repairs, services or maintains security equipment.” Section 9 then speaks to both sides of a job. Without the appropriate licence, a person must not carry out a security provider’s functions, and “is not entitled to any reward” for them. And on the side of whoever hires: “A person must not, directly or indirectly, engage another person to carry out for reward the functions of a security provider unless the other person holds the appropriate licence.”

WAThe security installer licence

WA Police Licensing Services says the security installer licence authorises installing, maintaining and repairing security equipment controlled by the Act, and that installers are divided into four classes under Regulation 27. One of them, Class 4, is to install locks of a kind referred to in Regulation 6; the same page lists the other three classes, so check which one covers the job before relying on Class 4 alone. The page never uses the word locksmith. The same page says the installer licence does not reach security equipment in vehicles, vessels or aircraft.

Running the business takes a second licence in WA. Agent licences cover advertising and supplying security services, and an installer who works for themselves, or subcontracts under their own ABN, needs a Security Agent’s licence of their own.

The other five, said plainly

South Australia, Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and the Northern Territory all license security work, but none of the licensing pages this guide draws on names locksmiths. That is not the same as saying no licence is needed, so ask the licensing body for your state or territory before the work starts:

Whatever your state calls it, the next cut is the practical one: checking a locksmith’s licence before the work starts. If the person at the door is selling rather than answering your call, the door-to-door guide explains where a licence comes into that too. All six cuts are on the home page.