Labour Hire Licence SA (2026): The 29 July Deadline, Fees and How to Apply

Last updated 10 July 2026.

Since 29 January 2026, South Australia requires a labour hire licence in every industry, not just the five sectors covered before. Businesses newly captured by the change have a transition period that ends 29 July 2026. The licence is issued by Consumer and Business Services (CBS). The application fee is $973 for individuals and $2,212 for companies (2025-26, indexed), and CBS recommends allowing at least six weeks for processing. If you supply workers to another business for a fee in SA, including as a temp or contract recruitment agency, this applies to you.

Who needs a labour hire licence in South Australia?

From 29 January 2026, amendments to the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 extended licensing to labour hire providers in every industry. Before that date, only five sectors were captured: horticulture processing, meat processing, seafood processing, cleaning, and trolley collection.

The definition is broad. If you supply workers to another business for a fee and those workers do the work as part of that business, you are providing labour hire. That captures temp and contract desks, staffing firms and on-hire arrangements generally: the exact model most new agencies run. The licence question turns on who employs the worker while the work is done. Pure permanent placement, where the candidate goes onto the client's own payroll, is recruitment, not labour hire.

If you were already licensed under the old five-sector scheme, the transition period is not for you. You simply stay licensed.

The 29 July deadline, and what to do if you're reading this late

Here is the maths nobody else will print. The transition period ends 29 July 2026. CBS recommends allowing at least six weeks for an application, plus the time it takes to gather what the application needs. If you are reading this in July 2026, the compliant lead-time has effectively already passed.

That changes nothing about what to do. It changes how fast you do it:

1. Lodge now, not after the deadline. An application in the system, with a receipt, is a materially better position than nothing lodged at all.
2. Order your National Police Certificates today. They are the slowest document in the pack, and every responsible person needs a current one.
3. Keep evidence of every step. Lodgement receipts, correspondence, dates.
4. If you haven't started operating in SA yet, don't start unlicensed. The Act carries serious maximum penalties for providing labour hire without a licence, six figures for companies with imprisonment available for the worst breaches, and your clients can be penalised too, for using you. The weeks are cheaper than the fine.

What an SA labour hire licence costs

The 2025-26 fees:

• Application, individual: $973
• Application, body corporate (company): $2,212
• Change of responsible person: $152

Fees are indexed, so check CBS for current amounts before you lodge. Unlike Victoria's turnover-tiered annual fees, the SA licence does not run on a fixed term. It stays in force until surrendered or cancelled, with ongoing obligations while you hold it.

Comparing states? Licences don't travel. SA, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT each run their own scheme with separate applications, separate fees and separate registers. Three states means three licences.

How to apply, step by step

1. Confirm you're captured. You supply workers to other businesses for a fee in SA.
2. Choose the applicant entity. Individual or body corporate. Most new agencies apply as the company.
3. Line up your responsible persons. At least two fit and proper people responsible for day-to-day management and operation.
4. Order National Police Certificates for the applicant, directors and every responsible person. Current certificates are required.
5. Prepare your evidence. Financial solvency, and the knowledge and experience to run a labour hire business. For companies, at least one director has to carry this.
6. Lodge the Application for a Labour Hire Licence at forms.sa.gov.au.
7. Allow at least six weeks, and answer any CBS request for more information fast.

Questions go to CBS Occupational Licensing: 13 18 82 or occupational@sa.gov.au.

Starting an agency? The licence might never be your problem

A fair share of people on this page aren't existing providers racing a deadline. They're recruiters planning their own desk, hitting the licence question for the first time, and discovering it's one brick in a bigger wall: the company, the insurances, WorkCover, the payroll float, client credit risk, award compliance. Each one has its own timeline and its own way of hurting you.

Here is the part almost nobody knows. When a recruiter launches with xRecruiter, they never apply for a labour hire licence at all. We employ the temps, we pay them, we invoice the clients on the partner's branded paper, so the licence is ours, held in every state that requires one. The regulator has audited exactly this structure and walked away satisfied: the entity that employs and pays the workers holds the licence, exactly as the scheme intends. You sign a client Monday and have a temp on site Thursday, because the licensed machine already exists.

Your brand, your clients, your candidates. The licence, the payroll, the insurances and the collections run behind you, with one point of contact instead of twenty suppliers. More than 107 recruiters run their own agencies this way.

FAQ

How much is a labour hire licence in SA?

The application fee is $973 for an individual or $2,212 for a body corporate, plus $152 to change a responsible person (2025-26, indexed annually). The licence has no fixed term, so there is no periodic renewal fee like Victoria's. Check CBS for current amounts and ongoing obligations.

When is the SA labour hire licence deadline?

The transition period for newly captured industries ends 29 July 2026. The all-industries requirement itself started 29 January 2026. CBS recommends allowing at least six weeks for an application, so anyone not yet licensed should lodge immediately. Businesses licensed under the old five-sector scheme stay licensed and are not affected by the transition.

Do recruitment agencies need a labour hire licence in SA?

If the agency on-hires workers, meaning temps or contractors employed by the agency while working inside client businesses, then yes, in every industry since 29 January 2026. Permanent placement, where the candidate becomes the client's own employee, is not labour hire and needs no licence.

Does my Victorian or Queensland licence cover SA?

No. Licences don't travel between states. Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT each run separate schemes with separate applications, fees and registers. Supplying workers in three licensing states means holding three licences.

Do I need my own licence if I launch with xRecruiter?

No. xRecruiter employs and pays the temps and invoices your clients, so xRecruiter holds the labour hire licence in every state that requires one. The structure has been audited by the regulator and cleared: the licensed entity is the one that employs and pays the workers, exactly as the scheme intends.

Do NSW or WA require a labour hire licence?

No. New South Wales and Western Australia currently have no state labour hire licensing scheme, though a national framework has been under discussion. Different obligations still apply there: workers compensation registration, WHS and Fair Work compliance.

The next step isn't a sales call

Racing the deadline, or realising the licence is one brick of twenty? Book a working session with the people who run the machine: bring your real numbers and your hardest questions, meet the payroll and compliance leads, and stress-test us. Half the people who sit that session sign. The other half walk away knowing exactly how a labour hire agency works on the inside, and that is theirs to keep either way. We can start four new agencies a month, so the queue is real. Nothing is public, ever.

Book the session

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