Someone got a shock from a lead or appliance?
If they're hurt, call 000, and don't touch them until the power is off at the wall or the main switch. Pull the item out of use and set it aside for testing. Shocks can also be reported to Energex on 13 19 62.
What Queensland requires, by type of work
| Type of work | Plug-in equipment must be | |
|---|---|---|
| Service work: hotels, motels, restaurants, shops, salons, clinics, schools, child care | Connected to a safety switch, or inspected and tested at least once a year. Covers leads, power boards, and plug-in gear that's moved during normal use | |
| Office work only | Connected to a safety switch, or inspected and tested at least once every 5 years | |
| Amusement work: rides, side shows and stalls at shows, fairs, carnivals and arcades | Tested every year if double insulated, every 6 months if not, and connected to a safety switch. Rides are also tested every time they're assembled on site | |
| Construction work | Compliant with AS/NZS 3012, with a tag showing the retest date and who tested it | |
| Hiring equipment out | Tested before each hire (or fitted with a safety switch that can't be removed), and inspected, tested and tagged at least every 6 months, with records kept for 5 years |
Why it matters on the Gold Coast
A coast built on service work
Nerang grew from an agricultural service town into suburbs for people working in the coastal tourism industries. The regulation's own examples of service work read like a Gold Coast high street: cleaning a motel, cooking in a restaurant, a vacuum cleaner in a hotel, a blow dryer in a salon.
Building sites everywhere
High-rise construction has boomed here since the 1980s, and Pimpama's population more than doubled between the 2016 and 2021 Census counts. Construction gear falls under AS/NZS 3012, a separate standard for building and demolition sites, so ask for a tester who works on sites.
Events and hire
Stalls and rides at shows, fairs and carnivals count as amusement work unless a non-profit runs them, with the tightest intervals in the regulation. Party, marquee and tool hire businesses have their own 6-monthly rule for every item they hire out.
What a Queensland tag has to show
When an item passes, the tester attaches a durable tag straight away with the test date or the date it's due again, and who did the test: a name, or a licence number. When it fails, it gets a durable tag warning people not to use it, and it comes out of service immediately.
Only new equipment, or equipment the tester has actually tested, may carry a pass tag. A roll of tags in the office drawer doesn't count.
The safety switch option, and testing the switches
For service and office work, plugging covered gear into a socket protected by a safety switch is an alternative to the yearly or five-yearly test. That only works if the safety switches themselves work. At these workplaces, each fixed safety switch must be tested when it's first connected and then at the intervals in AS/NZS 3760, and a portable safety switch is tested by pressing its button each time it's plugged in.
An electrician can tell you which of your outlets are actually protected, test the switches, and add protection where it's missing. For a small cafe, that can be simpler than testing every kettle and toaster each year.
Who can do the testing
The regulation says a competent person: someone with the training, qualifications or experience, or a mix, to do the task. Part 6 doesn't say that person has to be a licensed electrician. The advantage of booking a licensed electrician is that faults in the building, like a damaged power point or a missing safety switch, can be fixed on the same visit, and that repair work comes with a certificate of testing and compliance.
What we'd tell a Gold Coast business owner
Work out which category your business falls into first, because a beachfront cafe, an accountant upstairs and a marquee hire yard have very different rules. If you're service or office work, ask an electrician whether safety switch protection on your outlets is the simpler path. Either way, keep the test records where you can find them on a busy Saturday.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.