Background Checks in Australia: Working with Children Checks, Police Checks and Spent Convictions

Australia has no single national background check. Eight states and territories each run their own working with children scheme, national police checks come from two different sources depending on the purpose, and spent-conviction rules range from a 12-month threshold in South Australia to 30 months under Commonwealth law.

The AFP does not label this fee with a financial year. Treat it as current at the time of writing and check the AFP fee page for the current amount.

This hub covers background checks used for employment and volunteering across Australia: the eight state and territory working with children or vulnerable people schemes, national police checks issued by the Australian Federal Police and by state and territory police through the National Police Checking Service, spent convictions law, and the limited legal protection that applies to a criminal record in hiring decisions. It is written for a person who is the subject of a check, or for an organisation working out its own screening obligations. It does not explain how to check someone else's background outside a proper screening process, and nothing on this hub or its linked pages tells an individual reader whether their own record will affect a specific application.

What Counts as a "Background Check" in Australia?

Two different kinds of check sit under this heading, and they draw on different data. A working with children or vulnerable people check is a jurisdiction-specific clearance required by law before someone can work or volunteer in a role involving children, people with disability, or other vulnerable people. It runs against a broader dataset than an ordinary employment check, including in some jurisdictions non-conviction information, sentencing remarks and apprehension reports, not just finalised convictions. A national police check, by contrast, is a general-purpose criminal history check used for ordinary employment, licensing, visas and similar purposes, and it draws from the same underlying police records regardless of which agency issues it. See national police checks in Australia and the Working with Children Check across Australia for the detail on each.

The Eight Working with Children and Vulnerable People Schemes

Every state and territory has its own scheme, its own governing Act, and its own fee schedule. The table below is the spine of this cluster; every figure has been checked against the relevant jurisdiction's own current fee page or the Act itself, not assumed to match a neighbouring state.

The NSW, VIC, QLD and TAS fees above are confirmed on a page explicitly dated to the financial year beginning 1 July 2026. The SA, WA, ACT and NT fees come from live government pages with no explicit financial-year label; treat them as current at time of writing rather than as a confirmed FY2026-27 figure.

Two of the eight schemes are not limited to children. Tasmania's RWVP and the ACT's WWVP registration cover "vulnerable people" more broadly, which includes adults receiving a regulated activity, not only children. Calling either one a "Working with Children Check" is inaccurate.

None of the eight schemes is portable. Each requires its own application, its own check, and its own fee, even where the applicant already holds a valid clearance from another state. Narrow exceptions exist for short interstate visits, such as Victoria allowing an interstate visitor holding a home-state check to work in Victoria for up to 30 days a year for a specific event, but these are exceptions to needing a local check for a brief visit, not portability of the underlying check.

National Police Checks: AFP or State and Territory Police

The Australian Federal Police issues a National Police Certificate for $56, or $113 where fingerprints are required, but the AFP's own guidance is clear that it should be used only where the request is for a Commonwealth or ACT purpose. For general employment and volunteering elsewhere, the standard product is a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check, run through the ACIC-accredited National Police Checking Service by state and territory police or an accredited body. Both draw on the same underlying police data; the difference is who does the intake and under what accreditation. A person cannot apply for either type of check on someone else's behalf without that person's consent, and there is no published AFP volunteer or concession rate; discounted rates advertised online come from third-party accredited resellers, not the AFP itself. See national police checks in Australia for the full detail.

What the state layer adds is who issues the certificate locally, what it costs this financial year, how fast it comes back and whether the state's own anti-discrimination Act protects a job applicant with an irrelevant record: see the state guides for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT. Fees step up on a 1 July cycle in most jurisdictions, so treat any figure as current for the year stated on it.

Spent Convictions Are Not a National Rule

Spent-conviction law is not uniform across Australia, and the two thresholds most often quoted as if they were the same thing are not. Under the Commonwealth's Crimes Act 1914 Part VIIC, a conviction can become spent only if the person was not sentenced to imprisonment, or was sentenced to no more than 30 months; a sentence beyond that can never become spent under Commonwealth law. South Australia's own Spent Convictions Act 2009 sets a materially different, lower threshold: 12 months for an adult sentence and 24 months for a juvenile sentence. A spent conviction is generally removed from an ordinary employment police check, but Commonwealth and state legislation both carve out an exception permitting disclosure for checks involving children, people with disability, vulnerable people or aged care. See spent convictions in Australia for the state-by-state detail.

Your Rights If a Criminal Record Comes Up

There is no general Commonwealth law making it unlawful to refuse someone a job because of a criminal record. The Australian Human Rights Commission can inquire into and attempt to conciliate a complaint about an "irrelevant criminal record" under the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986, giving effect to ILO Convention 111, but if conciliation fails the Commission's only remaining step is a report to the Minister; there is no court the complainant can take the matter to. The Fair Work Act 2009's adverse-action protections in section 351 do not list criminal record among the protected attributes. See criminal record and employment rights in Australia for the full, carefully hedged picture, including where an employer's own obligations under the Privacy Act come in.

A Police Check Is Not a Court Record Search

A national police check reports releasable criminal history held by police; it is not the same thing as looking up a court file, judgment or daily court list, which each court's registry and judgment database handle under separate access rules and fees. If you are trying to find a judgment, check whether someone was sued, or inspect a court file, see court records in Australia and its state pages, which also explain which records (children's, family law, sexual-offence and adoption matters) are closed by default.

Reform in Flight: Towards a National Continuous Checking Capability

Governments have committed to national reform of working with children checks, including work towards continuous checking across jurisdictions. The near-term deliverable is mutual recognition of negative notices, meaning a person barred in one jurisdiction would be treated as barred everywhere, which is not the same as making a positive check portable between jurisdictions. No completion date for that work has been confirmed here, so treat interstate work as requiring a separate check in each jurisdiction until the responsible body says otherwise. As of the date this hub was last verified, no jurisdiction has implemented positive-check portability, and a person moving between states still needs a fresh local check.

This hub provides general legal information about background checks across Australia, verified 21 July 2026. It is not legal advice about your own situation, and nothing on this page or elsewhere in this cluster tells a reader whether their own record will affect a specific application or hiring decision. For advice on your circumstances, consult a legal practitioner admitted in the relevant Australian state or territory.

Explore each topic in detail: the Working with Children Check across Australia, national police checks, spent convictions, and criminal record and employment rights. State and territory pages: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there one background check that works across all of Australia?

No. Each of the eight states and territories runs its own working with children or vulnerable people scheme with its own application, fee and validity period, and none is portable to another jurisdiction. National police checks are more consistent, but even those come from two different sources depending on whether the purpose is Commonwealth/ACT (the AFP) or general employment elsewhere (state and territory police through the National Police Checking Service).

Is Victoria's check called the "Worker Screening Check"?

No. The check is still called the Working with Children Check. The Worker Screening Act 2020 is the name of the Victorian Act that governs it, not a rename of the check itself.

Is the Queensland "Yellow Card" still current?

No. "Yellow Card" is legacy terminology from an earlier scheme. Queensland's current schemes are the Blue Card and a separate NDIS or disability worker screening clearance, which can be applied for together in a combined application.

Is Tasmania's vulnerable-people check really free?

It is free for volunteer registrations only, and only because of a temporary fee-relief measure running from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027. Paid-work registrations still cost $137.20 during that period, and the standing fee applies to everyone once the relief measure ends.

Do Northern Territory volunteers pay anything for an Ochre Card?

Yes. Volunteers pay a concession fee of $8 and must submit a volunteer declaration form. They are not exempt from a fee entirely.

Does a spent conviction ever get disclosed for a working with children check?

Yes, in some circumstances. Spent convictions are generally removed from an ordinary employment police check, but Commonwealth and state spent-convictions legislation both permit disclosure for checks involving children, people with disability, vulnerable people or aged care.

Can an employer refuse to hire someone because of a criminal record?

There is no general Commonwealth law that prohibits this outright. The Australian Human Rights Commission can inquire into and try to conciliate a complaint about an irrelevant criminal record, but if conciliation fails there is no court avenue for the complainant, and the Fair Work Act's adverse-action protections do not list criminal record as a protected attribute.