If you hold a labour hire licence in Queensland you report every six months; in Victoria you report every year; in South Australia and the ACT you keep your licence details current and prove you are still fit to hold it at renewal. There is no national scheme, so a provider working across states keeps separate records for each regulator. Most of the answers already sit in your payroll, timesheet and placement systems. The scramble happens because nobody pulls them together until the due date. This article sets out what each regulator asks for, where each answer usually lives, and how to have it ready without a week of spreadsheets. It is not legal advice; check the current rules with each regulator.
Is there a national labour hire licence?
No. At the meeting of Commonwealth, state and territory workplace relations ministers on 31 October 2025, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania said they did not support a harmonised national approach to labour hire. The Commonwealth set up a senior officials' working group afterwards, but for now each state scheme stands on its own. If you supply workers in more than one licensing state, you need a licence and records for each.
What each regulator asks for
Queensland: six-monthly reports
Under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (Qld), licensees lodge a report every six months, starting from the date the licence was granted or renewed. According to the Queensland reporting guide, you have 28 days after the end of each period to lodge, and a late report can attract a penalty. The report asks about:
- Services: the locations (local government area or region) your workers worked in, the industry and occupation for each client, the type of engagement (full-time, permanent, contract, casual), any fees or bonds charged to workers, services provided (meals, transport, visa help, medicals and drug testing) and their fees, accrued leave entitlements, and any piece-rate work.
- Accommodation: each address you provide, whether workers pay for it, how many used it and the most housed at one time, bedrooms, and whether using it was a condition of the job. Also accommodation provided by others, as far as you know.
- Workers: the size of your registered worker pool, the number of workers supplied in the period (each placement counts), and visa workers by visa class.
- Compliance: notifiable WHS incidents, workers' compensation applications, convictions and enforcement action.
Some changes, such as starting to provide accommodation or starting to supply visa workers, must be notified before you submit the report.
Victoria: annual reports, and a wider scheme since 2026
Under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic), licence holders lodge an annual report with the Labour Hire Authority (LHA) within 28 days of the end of each 12-month period. The LHA lists what it asks for, including:
- Business details and the people who run it, and declarations that you remain fit and proper and financially viable.
- Industries you supply into and the approximate number of workers supplied.
- Visa status and subclasses of workers.
- The awards and enterprise agreements covering your workers, and any piecework or incentive pay.
- Deductions from pay for accommodation, meals or transport.
- Registrations: GST, PAYG withholding, FBT, payroll tax, WorkCover, apprentice and trainee approvals.
- Compliance history: investigations, legal proceedings, WHS notifications and workers' compensation claims.
The LHA treats accurate, on-time reports as a licence condition and says false or misleading information may be a criminal offence. Victoria's rules also widened during 2026: changes from 1 June 2026 strengthened the fit and proper and financial viability tests, and from 1 October 2026 any arrangement that has the character of labour supply needs a licence, including intermediaries that on-supply workers they don't employ. Regulations bringing on-site security, traffic management and control, crane operation and concreting in certain construction contexts into the scheme start on 18 January 2027 (Victorian Government notice of decision); check the LHA's law changes page for the final detail. Our post on Victoria's labour hire supply chain changes explains the 2026 changes and the records hosts and providers need to link.
South Australia: now every industry
South Australia's scheme is run by Consumer and Business Services (CBS). Until January 2026 it applied only to horticulture, meat and seafood processing, cleaning and trolley collection. From 29 January 2026 it covers labour hire providers in all industries, with newly covered providers given until 29 July 2026 to become licensed. Licensees pay an annual fee, must tell CBS about certain changes, and must give workers set information when they are first employed. Check CBS for the current list of obligations, as the scheme has just changed.
ACT: short licences and prompt updates
The ACT scheme, run by WorkSafe ACT under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2020, limits a licence to 12 months unless a regulation allows longer. A licensee must tell the commissioner in writing about changed contact details or trading name within 7 days. In practice the evidence of compliance is assembled at each renewal, and the commissioner can ask you for information about your compliance.
Where each answer comes from in your systems
The questions are different in each state, but the data behind them is mostly the same. In a typical labour hire business it is spread like this:
- Workers supplied, by client, industry and location: Placement or job records in the recruitment system (often called an ATS or CRM).
- Engagement type, award, pay rates, piece rates: Payroll.
- Hours worked and shifts: Timesheet system.
- Leave accrued: Payroll.
- Fees and deductions from pay: Payroll, sometimes a separate spreadsheet.
- Accommodation and transport: A spreadsheet, or nowhere.
- Visa status and subclass: Recruitment system or onboarding records.
- Incidents and workers' compensation claims: WHS register and insurer reports.
- Registrations: Accounts and the business's compliance folder.
Every row is held by a different person in a different system. That is a textbook case of [data silos](/guides/plain-english-glossary#data-silos) (information stuck in separate systems). Pulling the report together means exporting from each one, matching workers across them by hand, and typing the totals into the regulator's portal. That is a report built by hand, and it is only as accurate as the matching.
How to stop the spreadsheet scramble
Agree one worker and one placement ID
Most of the matching pain comes from the same person being "J Smith" in payroll, "John Smith" in the recruitment system and an employee number in the timesheet tool. Give every worker and every placement one ID that all systems share. A one-off clean-up of duplicate worker records usually comes first; see our data cleansing services.
Capture the awkward data once, where it happens
Accommodation, transport, fees and visa details are often the gaps because they are kept on the side. Record them in the system where the placement is made, as part of the normal onboarding steps, rather than in a separate spreadsheet.
Build the report from the systems, not into them
Instead of exporting and pasting each period, connect payroll, timesheets and placements to a reporting layer that produces each state's figures on demand. The Queensland and Victorian reports are laid out differently, but both come from the same joined-up data. This is the kind of [workflow automation](/guides/plain-english-glossary#workflow-automation) and reporting we build; see our business process automation service.
Keep a compliance calendar
Report due dates in Queensland and Victoria run from your licence dates, not the financial year, and differ by state. Put each due date, renewal and notification trigger into one calendar with reminders, owned by one person.
What it looks like when it's fixed
Three weeks before your Queensland report is due, the compliance manager opens one screen. It shows workers supplied this period by local government area, industry and occupation, visa workers by class, accommodation addresses and occupancy, leave accrued and every fee charged, all drawn from payroll, timesheets and placements overnight. The same data produces the Victorian annual report in a different layout. Nothing is typed twice. If a regulator asks how a number was worked out, you can show the records behind it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a separate licence in each state?
Yes, if you provide labour hire services in more than one state with a scheme. Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT each run their own. Check each regulator's definition of labour hire, as the Victorian definition widened in 2026.
What happens if I lodge my report late?
In Queensland a penalty can apply if the six-monthly report is lodged more than 28 days after the period ends. In Victoria the LHA treats on-time, accurate annual reports as a licence condition and has cancelled licences for failing to report. Check each regulator's current rules.
Can our payroll software produce the report?
Payroll holds part of the answer, such as pay, awards and leave, but not usually placements by location, accommodation or visa class. That is why the report sits across systems and is best built from joined-up data.
Will a national scheme replace the state schemes?
Not at present. In October 2025 Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania declined to support a harmonised approach, so the state schemes continue.
Where to start
Our labour hire page explains how we work with labour hire providers on payroll, timesheets, placements and reporting. You may also find Pay Rate vs Charge Rate: Seeing Your Real Labour Hire Margin useful. For a written map of where your licence report data lives and how to join it up, the $5,000 Process & Systems Audit covers it. Or book a free initial chat.
Sources: Queensland labour hire reporting guide · Victorian LHA: annual reporting · Victorian LHA: final changes from October 2026 · Business SA: SA's labour hire changes · ACT Labour Hire Licensing Act 2020 · DEWR: ministers' meeting, 31 October 2025