Do you have to show your licence number on your website?

Is your website an advertisement?

In Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia, the regulator's own page says yes. The QBCC's list of what counts as an advertisement starts with websites. Queensland's Electrical Safety Office lists websites and social media first. Western Australia's electrical guideline names web pages, and NSW Fair Trading says its rules cover the internet. Victoria's and South Australia's pages speak of advertising and promotional material generally without naming websites, so in those states treating your website as covered is our reading, not the regulator's words.

So the real question is which rule applies to you and what it asks for, because the details differ by state and by trade. Below is what each regulator's own page says. We could not find a page from Victoria's plumbing regulator that sets out an advertising rule, so Victorian plumbers should ask the regulator directly.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current rule with your regulator before you rely on it.

Queensland: QBCC licensees and electrical contractors

The QBCC's advertising page says your advertising must contain the name under which you are licensed, must state that you are licensed under the QBCC Act along with your licence number, and must not include false or misleading information. Trading names can be used, but must be accompanied by your QBCC licence name. Licence details have to be easily legible and reasonably prominent in written or visual material.

Its list of advertisements includes websites, social media pages, online service directories, newspaper ads, flyers and business cards, vehicle signage, radio and television, on-hold phone messages, billboards and home-show signage. The one exemption it names is high-vis shirts and vests.

Electrical contractors answer to the Electrical Safety Office, part of WorkSafe Queensland. Its April 2024 advice says you must include your registered name and electrical contractor licence number on all advertising, so customers can check you in its licence search. It lists websites and social media, newspaper and Yellow Pages advertising, flyers, fridge magnets and switchboard stickers, vehicle signage, radio and television, and on-hold advertising. Printed details must be clearly displayed so they can be easily read.

• The Electrical Safety Office says licence details are not needed on uniforms, business cards and stationery, merchandise, sponsorships, shop fronts, or online advertising that links to your website or social media homepage. That last one only works if the homepage shows the details.
• The QBCC lists business cards as advertising and the Electrical Safety Office exempts them; if you hold both licences, follow the stricter rule.
• If you hold a QBCC licence plus a restricted electrical worker's licence, the same page says you have the same advertising duties as an electrical contractor, and must state your licensed name and QBCC licence number when you advertise electrical work.

New South Wales: building and specialist trade work

NSW Fair Trading's page on building trade advertisements says the obligations come from the Home Building Act 1989 and the Australian Consumer Law, and apply to print, the internet, television, radio and other media. The operative line is short: the licensee's name and licence number must be shown in all advertising. A registered business name can be included instead of the licensee's name.

Fair Trading lists three things an advertisement must include: the licensee's name, the licence number with the correct category of work, and a business telephone number. It says nobody can advertise for residential building work over $5,000, or for specialist work of any value, without a current contractor licence, and it names electrical wiring, plumbing, draining, gas fitting, and air conditioning and refrigeration as specialist work.

The same page adds that advertisements must not make statements that are untrue or likely to mislead or deceive, and that you cannot state a price that is only part of the cost unless the single total price is also clearly stated.

Victoria: registered electrical contractors

Energy Safe Victoria's page on the responsibilities of a Registered Electrical Contractor, reviewed in December 2025, says you must ensure your REC registration number is on all promotional materials, and lists advertisements, notices and statements. It doesn't name websites. In our reading, a website that promotes your business is promotional material, and we treat it as covered. The page says it isn't a definitive guide to the law and points you to the Electricity Safety Act and Regulations.

The same page says you must hold public liability insurance with at least $5 million cover when carrying out, or offering to carry out, electrical contracting work. In our reading, a website that offers your services is offering to carry out work, so that insurance condition sits behind it too.

On the ELT Power & Electrical website we built, the REC number and the ABN appear in the footer of every page, as live text, directly above the copyright line that carries the business name.

Western Australia: electrical contractors

Western Australia has the most specific rule we found. Building and Energy's guideline cites Regulation 45(1) of the Electricity (Licensing) Regulations 1991: an electrical contractor must ensure that his or her electrical contractor's licence number appears in any advertisement for their electrical contracting business. Its list of advertisements includes web pages, business cards, signage on vehicles and buildings, letterheads, flyers, newspaper, radio and television advertising, and directory listings, including free ones. Identification on small tools is the only exclusion. Not displaying the number is an offence, and the requirement has been in force since 1 November 1991.

• Format: the prefix EC and a six-digit number, for example EC 004700. Leading zeros don't have to be shown, and Lic. No. EC 4700 is acceptable. Don't put Western Power or Building and Energy next to the number; the Electrical Licensing Board issues it.
• Size: the regulations say the number must be conspicuously displayed. Building and Energy's guideline is that it should be no less than 50% of the largest lettering in the advertisement.
• Position: the number must sit with the main body of the advertisement, not hidden away. On a vehicle, each side that carries an advertisement needs the number.

South Australia: building work contractors

Consumer and Business Services (CBS) licenses building work contractors in South Australia. In a December 2015 media release about a contractor advertising on Gumtree without a licence, the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs put the rule this way: under the Building Work Contractors Act 1995, a building work contractor is required to publish their name or registered business name and licence number in advertisements for building work. It also tells consumers to cross-check the advertised number on the CBS online register.

That is the clearest statement of the rule we could read on the CBS site, and it is ten years old, so confirm the current wording with CBS.

Your ABN, and where to put the numbers

None of the regulator pages above requires an ABN on a website. The ABN rule that does bind you is on invoices. The ATO's tax invoice page, part of its GST guidance and last updated in September 2026, says that if a customer asks for a tax invoice you must provide one within 28 days, unless the sale is $82.50 including GST or less. A tax invoice for a taxable sale under $1,000 must show seven details, including the seller's identity and the seller's ABN. Sales of $1,000 or more also need the buyer's identity or ABN.

We put the ABN on the website anyway. It costs nothing, it lets a customer look you up on ABN Lookup before they call, and it matches the number on your invoice. On the ELT site it sits beside the REC number in the footer.

Where the numbers go matters as much as whether they are there. The QBCC asks for easily legible and reasonably prominent; WA asks for conspicuously displayed. Our working rule is that a customer should find the licence number on any page within a few seconds, without knowing where to look.

• Footer, every page. Customers arrive from search on service and suburb pages, not just the home page. A footer line with the licensed name, the licence number in the regulator's format and the ABN covers every page at once, and it is what a linked social post relies on under the Electrical Safety Office's rule.
• Live text, not an image, so it can be read by a screen reader and copied into the regulator's licence search.
• About page. Put the licence number next to the licence holder's name, with the trade and licence class, so name and number line up the way the QBCC and NSW pages ask.
• Quote form confirmation and quotes. The confirmation message after a quote request, and the quote that follows, should carry the same licensed name and number. NSW asks for the number with the correct category of work; use the same wording everywhere.
• Licensed name with any trading name. The QBCC says a trading name must be accompanied by your licence name; NSW allows a registered business name instead of the licensee's name. Show both together and you satisfy both pages.
• Keep it editable. If a licence number changes, a footer is one edit; a number baked into fifty page images is fifty.

Common questions

Does my Facebook page need my licence number?

In Queensland, yes. The QBCC lists social media pages as advertising, and the Electrical Safety Office lists websites and social media, with one relief: a post or page that links to your website or social media homepage doesn't need the details. Our reading is that this only works if the homepage shows them. The other states' pages we read refer to advertising generally, and NSW says its rules cover the internet.

Do business cards need the licence number?

It depends on who licenses you. The QBCC lists business cards as advertising, and WA's electrical guideline lists them too. Queensland's Electrical Safety Office says business cards and stationery don't need the details. If you hold more than one licence, follow the stricter rule.

Do I have to put my ABN on my website?

None of the regulator pages we read requires it. The ATO requires the seller's ABN on a tax invoice. We include the ABN on the website as a trust signal, and so the number on the site matches the number on the invoice.

My trading name isn't my licensed name. Which goes on the site?

Both. The QBCC says a trading name must be accompanied by your QBCC licence name. NSW says a registered business name can be used instead of the licensee's name. Showing the licensed name, the trading name and the licence number together satisfies the pages we read.