Find Security and Investigation Subcontractors in Australia

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Security is licensed by the police in every Australian state, and the classes are narrow. A licence to guard unarmed does not authorise crowd control, and neither authorises investigation work.

This page covers what gets subcontracted in this sector, the credentials worth confirming, and how a job runs on Workforce Marketplace. Early access is open.

What gets subcontracted

The work most often subcontracted covers:

Static guarding and site patrols
Crowd control for venues and events
Mobile patrol and alarm response
Cash in transit services
Alarm monitoring centre operation
Corporate investigation, surveillance and factual investigation
Risk assessment and security consulting

Credentials that matter here

The licence class must match the activity exactly:

Class 1A, unarmed guard for static and patrol work
Class 1B, armed guard, which is a separate authorisation
Class 1C, crowd control, required for venue and event work and not covered by 1A
Class 1D, cash in transit
Class 1E, monitoring centre operator for alarm monitoring
Class 2A, security consultant for advisory and risk assessment work
Private Investigator Licence for surveillance and investigation, issued separately again
Master licence held by the business, which is distinct from the individual operative licences

The master licence is the one businesses forget. An operative may be individually licensed while the company engaging them holds no master licence, which makes the arrangement unlawful. Check both the business licence and the individual classes.

What to confirm before work starts

An active ABN. Where a supplier does not quote one, you are generally required to withhold 47 per cent of the payment and remit it to the ATO. Their GST registration also tells you whether the price should carry it.

That the credential is held by the entity you are contracting with. A person can hold a qualification while the business you are paying holds nothing. Check the name on the document against the name on the invoice.

Insurance appropriate to the scope. Public liability is the common one. Depending on the work you may also need professional indemnity, and workers compensation if they carry their own staff.

That the engagement is genuinely a contract for services. Since the Fair Work amendments the test looks at the real substance of the relationship rather than the label on the paperwork, and getting it wrong creates back-pay, superannuation and payroll tax exposure. Contractor vs employee in Australia sets out how it now works.

Writing a scope that gets comparable quotes

Security contracts need the post orders and the escalation path written down. State the hours and the number of licensed personnel required and at what class, what the post orders and duties are, what the escalation and emergency procedure is, who supplies uniforms, radios and vehicles, how incidents are documented and reported, what the response time commitment is on mobile patrol, and what the insurance position is on incidents involving force.

How it works on Workforce Marketplace

Post the scope with the payment structure it actually uses, whether that is fixed price, hourly, daily, quoted or split into milestones for staged work. Subcontractors apply, and you compare them side by side rather than chasing callbacks.

Every account is ABN-verified at sign-up. Beyond that, subcontractors can submit licences, certifications and insurance for verification, which we review rather than grant automatically. Their profile shows the status against each credential without showing the document, the licence number or the ABN. Verification is opt-in, so a profile may hold credentials that have not been submitted, and it reflects the document as at the date it was reviewed rather than standing indefinitely.

Applying for work costs nothing and there are no leads to buy. Payment runs through Stripe, and Workforce Marketplace never stores your card or bank details.