Labour hire licensing is now a NSW election promise: a bill in the first 100 days if Labor is re-elected. A parliamentary committee asked for it urgently in August

The short answer

• Promised: a bill for a licensing scheme covering labour hire providers in all industries, with host businesses required to use only registered providers.
• When: released in the first 100 days of a re-elected Minns Labor Government. The election is 13 March 2027; 100 days after election day is 21 June 2027. Releasing a bill is not passing it, and no start date for licensing has been given.
• What the committee asked for: urgent action on a scheme run by a Victoria-style labour hire authority, built so it can join a future national scheme.
• What changes here now: no licence is yet required to supply workers to a farm in New South Wales. What has changed is enforcement around the edges: more unannounced SafeWork visits, and inspection information that can now be passed to the ATO, Border Force and the AFP.

What was promised, in the government’s words

The announcement was a ministerial media release from the Minister for Work Health and Safety, Sophie Cotsis. It says A re-elected Minns Labor Government will release a bill in the first 100 days to establish a labour hire licensing scheme. The scheme would be consistent with the national principles on labour hire licensing and, in the release’s words, will require labour hire providers in all industries and sectors to be licensed in NSW. On the other side of the contract, the release says host employers must only use the services of a registered labour hire provider, with education for businesses and penalties for non-compliance.

The release follows a probity investigation into a Sydney rail project, and the scheme it describes is economy-wide. But it names this industry directly: the release says Farmers, unions, businesses and the Modern Slavery Committee have raised similar concerns about labour hire providers operating in the horticulture sector and beyond. It also says the government will keep consulting unions, industry and workers, and will look at the schemes running interstate before settling the design.

Both sides of the labour market are quoted backing it. The Australian Fresh Produce Alliance called the 100-day commitment in the same release a clear and welcome signal. Unions NSW said licensing would mean workers on berry farms and elsewhere know their employer has passed a basic test of honesty and propriety.

How it got here

The Legislative Council’s Modern Slavery Committee tabled its report on temporary migrant workers in rural and regional New South Wales on 6 August 2026, after hearings that included one in Coffs Harbour on 11 December 2025. We reported it in August: its Recommendation 7 asks the government to urgently investigate allegations of systemic labour exploitation in Coffs Harbour and the Nambucca Valley. Those are allegations made to the committee, attributed there to the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, and no business is named in the report or here.

On licensing, the report starts from a plain statement. New South Wales, it says, is one of three states in Australia without labour hire regulation. Growers’ and workers’ groups alike told the committee the gap draws operators here: Berries Australia and the Australian Workers’ Union both described New South Wales as a haven for providers who could not work as easily in Victoria or Queensland, and the committee recorded a McKell Institute finding that up to 63 businesses had kept operating in New South Wales after losing their labour hire licences in one of those two states.

Its Recommendation 6 asks the government to take urgent action to implement a labour hire licensing scheme as soon as possible, to adopt a similar approach to Victoria’s by establishing a labour hire authority to oversee licensing and regulation, and to build a scheme that can be harmonised with a future national one.

The government’s first answer, on the day the report was tabled, was more cautious. Its ministerial statement said It remains the preference of the NSW Government for there to be a nationally harmonised labour hire licensing scheme, while examining all options, including a scheme of its own. A national scheme had stalled: the statement records that Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania pulled out of that approach in October 2025. Set beside that statement, the 2 October release moves from examining a New South Wales scheme to promising one, as an election commitment.

What it would and would not do, against Recommendation 6

The table compares the two documents’ text. Neither sets fees, penalty amounts or what a provider must show to get a licence.

The dates that matter, drawn by The Headland from the committee’s inquiry page, the 2 October release and the NSW Electoral Commission. The release does not say from which day its 100 days run; we count from election day, so read 21 June as the earliest reading, not a promised date.

What licensing means where it already exists

Briefly, from the regulators’ own pages. In Victoria, the Labour Hire Authority says providers must be licensed and hosts must only use licensed providers, with penalties for a host that engages an unlicensed provider exceeding $660,000 for a corporation and $160,000 for an individual, and a public register to check. Queensland has required every labour hire provider to be licensed since 16 April 2018, makes it an offence to use an unlicensed one or to set up an arrangement to avoid the rules, and keeps a register too. South Australia extended licensing to labour hire in all industries from 29 July 2026. The ACT licenses providers under its Labour Hire Licensing Act 2020, through WorkSafe ACT, with a public register.

What a licence screens for is the point. Victoria’s Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner told the committee that, after 198 applications refused and 259 licences cancelled, there were 448 entities supplying labour hire in Victorian horticulture, which he said was half what there would otherwise have been. That is his evidence, recorded by the committee; we have not tested it.

What changes on the Mid North Coast now

For growers: legally, nothing from the commitment yet. No law requires a farm here to check that a contractor is licensed, because there is no licence. If a bill follows the release, the host obligation is the part that reaches farms directly: a grower using a contractor would have to use a registered one, as hosts already must in Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. The government’s August statement and the October release both say SafeWork NSW’s codes of practice have been mandatory since 1 July, and both describe a labour hire code of practice as work under way, not one in force.

For workers: the change so far is enforcement. The August statement said SafeWork NSW was ramping up unannounced visits across the state, that information gathered in inspections can now be shared with the ATO, Border Force and the AFP, and that work on the Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Valley recommendations was already under way with state and federal agencies. It also pointed to the NSW Migrant Workers’ Centre. Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast, which backed licensing on 12 August, made the regional case: it said The Mid North Coast relies heavily on a migrant workforce across healthcare, agriculture and hospitality.

If something feels wrong at work, the help lines are unchanged: 1800 FREEDOM (1800 37 33 36) for the NSW Anti-slavery Commissioner, and the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. Our August story lists the others.

Our read

This section is opinion, built on the documents cited above.

On substance, the commitment meets most of what the committee asked. It is economy-wide rather than farm-only, which the McKell Institute urged, as the committee recorded, and which the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance welcomed; it puts a duty on the businesses that use labour hire, which is where a scheme reaches a farm gate; and tying it to the national principles is the nearest thing on offer to the harmonisation Recommendation 6 wanted.

Two parts of the recommendation it does not meet. The first is the authority: the committee singled out the Victorian Labour Hire Authority’s work for praise and asked for a body like it, and the release does not say who would run the NSW scheme. The second is time. The committee asked for urgent action; the promise is a bill some time after an election on 13 March 2027, from a government that is in office now and could introduce one in this term. Counted from election day, the first 100 days end in late June 2027, and a bill released then still has to pass and commence. The committee recorded the McKell Institute’s call for a scheme operating by 1 July 2027; on this timetable that looks out of reach.

So the date to watch is 6 November, not March. The formal response is the government answering the committee as a government, in this term. If it accepts Recommendation 6, it should say whether there will be an authority and when licensing would start. If it says only “after the election”, the growers and workers this report was about wait at least another season. We will report the response when it is published.