How to Prequalify a Contractor in Australia: Documents, Insurance & Licences to Check

Prequalifying a contractor means reading their insurance, licences and safety paperwork properly before anyone is booked, and reading it the same way every time. This guide is for private businesses: property owners, facilities managers and principal contractors. It is not the government kind, such as Victoria's Construction Supplier Register, which covers suppliers tendering for Victorian Government construction projects.¹

What Does It Mean to Prequalify a Contractor?

To prequalify a contractor is to decide, before engaging them, whether the business meets your standard for the work: who it is, what it holds, and how it manages safety. It is a decision about the company, made once and kept current, and it comes before the induction of any individual.

The duty stays with you. Safe Work Australia says WHS duties cannot be contracted out to another party, such as a subcontractor, and that a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) can owe duties to a worker lower down the chain with no direct contract.² A contractor, a subcontractor and a subcontractor's employee are all workers under the model WHS Act (section 7) and the state and territory WHS Acts based on it, and the primary duty is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of the workers a business engages or causes to be engaged, and of workers whose work it influences or directs, while they are at work in the business or undertaking.³ What you checked before engaging a contractor is part of showing you did what was reasonably practicable. Who owes what in one building is set out in our guide to PCBU responsibilities for property owners and FM companies.

The Prequalification Checklist.

Eight checks cover most contractors, in this order.

• Business identity. An active ABN, a name that matches, and a registered company.
• Insurance. Certificates of currency for workers compensation and public liability, and professional indemnity where the work involves advice or design.
• Trade licence. The licence for each class of work quoted, verified on the register.
• High risk work licences and white cards. Sighted for each worker who needs one, before the work.
• Safe work method statement. For high risk construction work, read against the job you booked.
• WHS management system. Evidence that safety is run as a system.
• Induction records. Your own site induction, recorded against names and dates.
• Review dates. A re-check date against every item above.

A one-page printable version is available as a contractor prequalification checklist (PDF).

How Do You Check a Contractor Is Who They Say They Are?

Ask for the ABN and the legal name, then check both on ABN Lookup, the Australian Business Register's free public search. It shows the ABN and its status, the entity's names, any ACN and GST registration, and the Register says it depends on businesses updating their own details, so treat it as a first check.⁴ For a company, ASIC's company extract has a status field that shows whether it is currently registered.⁵⁶

The trap is the name: a quote under a trading name, a certificate naming the company, a licence held by the director. Each can be legitimate, and each is a question to ask. Make every later document match the legal entity on the file.

What Insurance Should a Contractor Hold?

Three policies come up most: workers compensation, public liability, and professional indemnity. Which you ask for is a decision about the work, set in your contract.

business.gov.au says employers must get workers compensation insurance from an authorised insurer, and that the laws vary in each state and territory.⁷ On public liability, business.gov.au says some states and territories require it for certain occupations, while Business Queensland lists product and public liabilities among Queensland's compulsory insurance.⁷⁸ Neither the model WHS Act nor the model WHS Regulations (December 2025) makes checking a contractor's public liability insurance a legal duty, so the limit you ask for, and whether your business or your client is noted on the policy, comes from your contract.⁹ Queensland's own Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 does not make it a duty either: it mentions insurance only in the fees for workers' compensation self-insurance reports.⁴¹

Check workers compensation at the source where you can. In NSW, icare's Employer Lookup searches employers registered with icare by ABN or ACN and confirms whether a policy is in place, but not wages, classification or worker numbers.¹⁰¹¹ In Victoria, a WorkCover certificate of currency exists only for employers required to register, so a sole trader with no employees may have none to give you.¹² What to read on the certificate itself is in our guide to the certificate of currency.

How to Verify a Contractor's Licence, State by State.

Most trade licensing is run state by state. business.gov.au says the licences and permits a business needs depend on its type, its activities, and its state or territory,¹³ so start with the register for the place the work is done.

Where the work is	Register to check
NSW	Service NSW, Check a builder or tradesperson licence: residential building work, wiring, plumbing, draining, gasfitting, and air conditioning or refrigeration work. Search by name, licence number, type, ABN, ACN or location.14
Queensland	The QBCC licensee register for building work, with a complete licence history. The Electrical Safety Office licenses electrical work.15
Victoria	The Building and Plumbing Commission Practitioner Search for builders,16 and Energy Safe Victoria's public register for electrical tradespeople.17
Western Australia	The Building and Energy Online Licence Search, whose registers it says are updated daily.18
South Australia	The licensing public register, by licence number or surname or trading name, covering builders, plumbers, gas fitters, electricians and others.19
Tasmania	CBOS, Find a licensed tradesperson: electricians, plumbers, gas-fitters, builders, architects and engineers. It shows current licence holders only.20
ACT	The ACT Government's construction occupations public registers, which show expired, suspended, surrendered and cancelled licences.21
Northern Territory	The Building Practitioners Board public register, with a status filter.22

Three habits make the check mean something. Check the class, not just the word "licensed": the QBCC tells people to check that the licence class matches the work to be done, and a licence history shows any conditions or endorsements.²³ Match the entity: Western Australia's regulator warns that practitioners and contractors can share a registration number, so the name, number and licence type all have to line up.¹⁸ And treat a missing entry as a question: the QBCC says that if a contractor is not in its register, there is a chance they are not licensed.¹⁵

Which Licences Are National, and What About Interstate Contractors?

Some licences are national. The Australian Government says a Refrigerant Handling Licence is needed to do anything with a regulated refrigerant that could cause leakage, including installing, commissioning, servicing or maintaining refrigeration and air conditioning equipment, and the Australian Refrigeration Council says it issues the licence on behalf of the Australian Government.²⁴²⁵ The Council says you can find licensed technicians and authorised businesses on its website.²⁶ For a refrigeration contractor, check there as well as the state licence.

A worker licensed in another state is the other wrinkle. Automatic mutual recognition lets an individual licensed in another participating state or territory work in NSW on that licence, for occupations included in the scheme and only for the activities the home-state licence allows. NSW says some occupations are excluded or temporarily exempt, that the scheme does not cover licences held by companies, and that Queensland is not currently in it.²⁷ So check a company's licence on the register for the state of the work, and an individual working on a home-state licence on the home-state register as well.

Do You Have to See a High Risk Work Licence or a White Card?

Two checks are requirements of the model WHS Regulations, not just good practice. The regulation numbers in this guide are the model Regulations'. The worked examples here are set in NSW and the ACT, whose own instruments are the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW) and the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (ACT). Victoria is the only jurisdiction that has not implemented the model WHS laws, and the others have made variations, in some instances substantial ones, so check the rules that apply where the work is done.²⁸

The first is the high risk work licence, for work such as scaffolding, dogging and rigging, operating certain cranes and hoists, and a forklift.²⁹ A PCBU at a workplace must not direct or allow a worker to carry out high risk work for which a licence is required unless it sees written evidence, provided by the worker, that they hold the relevant licence (regulation 85(1)), and it must keep a record of that evidence for at least 1 year after the work (regulation 85(4)).³⁰⁹ In NSW, Service NSW has an online check for a high risk work licence, and SafeWork NSW says its register shows licence type, status, expiry date and conditions.³¹³²

The second is the white card, formally general construction induction training. A PCBU must not direct or allow a worker to carry out construction work unless the worker has completed the training and, if that was more than 2 years ago, has carried out construction work in the preceding 2 years (regulation 317(1)), and it must ensure the worker holds the card or, if the worker has applied for a card but not yet been issued one, a certification issued within the preceding 60 days (regulation 317(2)).³⁰⁹ The 2-year rule is about the worker, not the card: SafeWork NSW says a white card becomes void after 2 consecutive years away from construction work, and WorkSafe WA says the card becomes invalid if the holder leaves the industry for 2 consecutive years or longer, while Access Canberra says the ACT card does not expire unless cancelled by the Work Health and Safety Commissioner.³³³⁴³⁵

Not every facilities job is construction work. The regulations define construction work to include maintenance and repair of a structure, and exclude testing, maintenance or repair work of a minor nature (regulation 289).³⁰ Decide per job, write the decision beside the contractor's file, and where it is close, ask the regulator.

What a Safe Work Method Statement Has to Show.

A SWMS is the contractor's written plan for high risk construction work, and the PCBU that carries out that work must, before it commences, ensure a SWMS for the proposed work is prepared, or has already been prepared by someone else (regulation 299(1)).³⁰ Safe Work Australia says the person responsible for carrying out the high risk construction work is best placed to prepare it, in consultation with the workers doing it.³⁶

High risk construction work covers 18 categories, and three show up on most property sites: work involving a risk of falling more than 2 metres, work on or near energised electrical installations, and work in an area where powered mobile plant moves.³⁰ A SWMS must identify that work, the hazards and risks, the control measures, and how they are to be implemented, monitored and reviewed, and it must take into account the circumstances at the workplace (regulation 299(2) and (3)).³⁰ Safe Work Australia says a generic SWMS may not meet the requirements unless it has been reviewed and amended for the specific workplace.³⁶

That gives a reader three questions. Does it describe the work you booked, in your building? Does it deal with the hazards that building adds, such as an unguarded roof edge, a live board or a loading dock in use? Was it reviewed, and revised as necessary, when the control measures were revised (regulation 302)?³⁰ On a construction project as the model Regulations define it, the principal contractor must also take all reasonable steps to obtain a copy of each SWMS before the high risk construction work commences; who that is, and what a managing agent owes, is in our guide to PCBU responsibilities.³⁰ ComplyFlow's AI SWMS review reads a method statement the contractor has prepared against criteria you set, and a person approves.

What Evidence Shows a Contractor Runs Safety as a System?

A licence says a person may do a kind of work. It does not say the business around them manages risk. Ask for evidence of a WHS management system, scaled to the contractor: a sole trader fitting out a plant room does not need a 60-page manual, and a mechanical services firm with 40 staff should have more than a one-page policy.

SafeWork NSW publishes a checklist for clients assessing a builder, and it is a useful model. It asks whether the contractor has a safety management system and, if not, for evidence of a WHS policy, a consultation policy and processes, and how it manages health and safety risks on its projects.³⁷ It also asks how the contractor monitors its own contractors' workers compensation policies and reviews its SWMS.³⁷ It was written for building projects, so adapt it to the trade. Ask for evidence, not assertions: a signed policy, a recent risk assessment, an incident and corrective action register, and training records. How ComplyFlow's standard prequalification form reviews a safety management system is set out in its own post.

Which Induction Records Should You Keep?

A white card is a worker's general induction to construction work and says nothing about your building. A site induction is yours to give: where the plant room is, how to isolate the supply, who to call. Keep a record against the contractor of who was inducted, by whom, on what date, and into which building. The contractor management process follows that line.

How Often Should You Re-Check Each Document?

The timing below is our recommendation, and your contract may set a stricter rhythm.

Check	Re-check when, and why
ABN and company status	At engagement and each annual review. A business can change its status or name after approval.
Insurance certificates	Before each renewal date, and before any job that runs past the end date. A certificate shows cover on the day it was issued.
Trade licence	At engagement, at licence expiry, and before a new class of work.
High risk work licence	Before the work starts, then at expiry.
White card	Once per worker, and again if a worker has not done construction work for 2 years.
SWMS	For each job, and when the scope changes.
The whole prequalification	At least once a year. Safety systems, subcontractors and records move.

Give every document a review date the moment you accept it, so the date is on the file and not in someone's head. And decide in advance what holds a job: our recommendation is that an expired insurance certificate, a high risk work licence nobody has sighted, or a missing SWMS each hold the job until it is fixed.

Prequalifying a Mechanical Contractor for Three Parramatta Office Buildings.

This is an illustration, not a customer story. A managing agent looks after 3 office buildings in Parramatta. A mechanical services business has quoted to replace two rooftop chillers over 8 weeks, with a crane lift hired in from another firm. What a managing agent owes on a job this size is in our PCBU responsibilities guide; these are the prequalification decisions.

Identity and licences pass: ABN Lookup shows an active ABN matching the quote, the NSW register shows a licence for the class of work, and the Australian Refrigeration Council's search shows the technicians with a current Refrigerant Handling Licence. The workers compensation policy shows on icare's Employer Lookup. The public liability certificate expires in week 6 of the 8-week job, so the approval carries a date.

The SWMS comes back with one question. It covers the roof edge, where there is a risk of falling more than 2 metres, and says nothing about the lift, which brings powered mobile plant into the work area. Both are high risk construction work, so the contractor needs a SWMS for the lift before it commences. Then the crane firm's dogger supplies a licence that expired 2 months ago. The business must not direct or allow that worker to do the dogging until it has seen written evidence, provided by the worker, that the worker holds a current licence. Under the model Regulations a licence whose holder applied to renew it before it expired stays in force until the holder is told the decision, so the agent asks for the expired licence and the renewal application together.⁹

The managing agent approves with three dated conditions: renewed public liability evidence before week 6, a SWMS that covers the lift before the crane is booked, and the dogger's current licence evidence before the lift. All three were on the file the day the contractor was approved, so nobody had to chase them. That is the difference between a pile of documents and a prequalification.

Where Software Fits.

A spreadsheet holds a handful of contractors; a panel carries too many expiry dates. In ComplyFlow's prequalification module you set a contractor category, which names the documents and inductions a contractor of that kind must provide, and those requests appear on the dashboard of each contractor you assign to it.³⁸ A reviewer checks the dates the contractor entered and approves or rejects with comments.³⁹ AI document review reads a certificate or licence against the criteria set for that document type and reads the expiry date off the page, and a person then approves or rejects it.⁴⁰ For the wider process, see contractor management software.

What a Good Prequalification File Gives You a Year Later.

The test of a prequalification is not whether the contractor passed. It is whether, a year from now, you can show what you saw, on what date, from which register, and what you did when something was about to expire.