If you take bookings over the phone, recording the call is genuinely useful. It settles arguments about what was quoted, it gives you the address the customer rattled off too fast, and it is the only honest way to check whether whoever answers your phone is doing a decent job of it.
It is also regulated, and the rules are not national. Australia has no single call recording law. Each state and territory has its own surveillance devices legislation, and they do not agree with each other.
The two camps
Broadly, states fall into one of two positions.
- All-party consent. Everyone on the call has to know it is being recorded. New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia sit here.
- Party consent. A participant in the conversation may record it without the other party’s agreement. Victoria and Queensland sit here.
That difference matters less than you might think, because of what happens next.
State by state
| State | Governing Act | Position |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | Surveillance Devices Act 2007 | All parties must consent |
| VIC | Surveillance Devices Act 1999 | A party to the call may record |
| QLD | Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 | A party to the call may record |
| WA | Surveillance Devices Act 1998 | All parties must consent |
| SA | Surveillance Devices Act 2016 | All parties must consent |
Two practical complications. First, your customer may be in a different state from you — a Sydney landlord ringing about a Brisbane rental, say. Second, even where recording is lawful, what you may then do with the recording, including who you share it with, is governed separately.
The habit that works everywhere
Announce it. Every call, every state, no exceptions.
This call may be recorded so we get your job details right.
One sentence at the top of the call. It satisfies all-party consent where that applies, it removes the argument entirely where it does not, and in our experience callers do not react to it — they have heard it a thousand times from banks and telcos.
The alternative — recording in Victoria and Queensland because you technically may, and not in New South Wales because you may not — means running two different systems and getting it wrong the first time someone rings from interstate. Announce it everywhere and the problem disappears.
The other three things to get right
- Say why. “So we get your job details right” is a reason. “For quality and training purposes” is corporate throat-clearing that tells the caller nothing.
- Have a retention period and stick to it. Keeping every call forever is a liability, not an asset. Decide how long you need them — long enough to settle a dispute about a quote — and delete on schedule.
- Be able to hand one over. If a customer asks for the recording of their own call, you should be able to find it and give it to them without a drama.
What this is not
This is a plain-English summary written for trade business owners, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for it. The Acts named above are the starting point, not the whole picture, and the position on what you may do with a recording after you have made it is more involved than what is written here. If recordings are going to be central to how you run your business, spend an hour with a solicitor.
If you want to see how we handle it, our call recording page sets out the announcement, the retention period and how a caller gets a copy.