Quick note before we start: this is general guidance for Australian professionals, not legal advice. Recording and surveillance laws differ by state and territory, they get updated, and the facts of your situation matter. If you record client calls as part of your job, check the current legislation for your state or get advice from a lawyer who knows it.
The short answer
There is no single national law. Recording phone calls in Australia is governed mostly by state and territory surveillance and listening devices Acts, and they split into two camps.
- All-party consent (everyone on the call has to agree): New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Australian Capital Territory.
- One-party consent (you can record a call you are part of, without telling the other person): Victoria, Queensland, and the Northern Territory.
So the honest answer to "is it legal to record a phone call in Australia" is: it depends where you (and arguably the other person) are, and whether you have consent. For a professional recording client calls, the safe and sensible approach is to get consent every time, regardless of which state you are in. More on why below.
All-party consent states: NSW, WA, SA, TAS, ACT
In these jurisdictions, the general position is that you need the consent of every party to a private conversation before you record it. "Private conversation" is doing a lot of work in those Acts - it broadly means a conversation the parties could reasonably expect not to be overheard or recorded. A client call about their finances clearly qualifies.
The relevant legislation by jurisdiction:
- NSW: Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW)
- WA: Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA)
- SA: Surveillance Devices Act 2016 (SA)
- TAS: Listening Devices Act 1991 (Tas)
- ACT: Listening Devices Act 1992 (ACT)
Practical upshot: if you or your client are in one of these five, get a clear yes on the call before you start recording, and note who consented and when. A recording made without all-party consent can be inadmissible and, worse, can itself be an offence in some circumstances. There are narrow exceptions in some of these Acts (for example, where recording is reasonably necessary to protect a lawful interest), but you do not want your compliance to rely on arguing an exception after the fact.
One-party consent states: VIC, QLD, NT
In Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the general position is that a party to a private conversation can record it without the consent of the others. You are part of the call, so you can record it.
- VIC: Surveillance Devices Act 1999 (Vic)
- QLD: Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 (Qld)
- NT: Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NT)
That sounds like a free pass, but two things narrow it for professionals. First, being allowed to record is not the same as being allowed to use or share that recording - several of these Acts restrict communicating or publishing a private conversation even where the recording itself was lawful. Second, you are almost never just in one state. Calls cross borders constantly, and it is genuinely unsettled which state's law governs a call between, say, a broker in Melbourne and a client in Perth. The cautious reading is that the stricter (all-party) rule could apply.
It is not just surveillance law - privacy obligations stack on top
Surveillance and listening device Acts tell you whether you can record. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles tell you what you can do with the recording and the personal information in it. If you are an APP entity (most businesses with turnover over the threshold, plus some others regardless of size), you generally need to tell people what you are collecting and why, keep it secure, and only use it for the purpose you collected it for.
On top of that, your AFSL, ACL or professional body almost certainly has its own policy on recording client conversations, retention and storage. For mortgage brokers, your aggregator or licensee will usually have something in writing. Read it. It can be stricter than the law.
How to capture and keep consent properly
The mechanics matter as much as the law. Getting a mumbled "yeah sure" that nobody wrote down does not help you in two years when a complaint lands. Here is a clean process that works in every state:
- Ask at the very start of the call, before anything substantive is discussed. A simple line: "I record our calls so I have an accurate record of what we agreed - are you happy for me to do that?"
- Wait for an actual yes. Do not start until you have it.
- Capture the consent on the record itself - the moment they agreed, in their words where possible, with the date and time.
- Keep it with the file note for that client, not in a separate system that gets lost.
- If they say no, don't record. Take notes the old way and document that they declined.
That third step - getting the consent onto the permanent record - is the one most people skip, and it is the one that actually protects you. A recording with no documented consent attached is a liability sitting in your archive.
Where CallNote fits (and where it deliberately doesn't)
Worth being upfront about what CallNote does, because it sidesteps a chunk of this problem by design. CallNote never records or transcribes audio. It receives the transcript your phone or meeting system already produced - you paste it, upload a voice memo, forward it by email, or connect a phone system like Dialpad - and generates a clean, structured file note from that transcript in about two minutes. You review it, then lodge and lock it: timestamped, SHA-256 sealed, append-only audit log.
Two things follow from that. First, the recording decision and its legality stays with you and whatever system actually made the recording - CallNote is not adding a recorder or a meeting bot to your call. Second, CallNote ships with per-state recording-consent scripts for all eight states and territories, so you can read the right wording for where you are and capture the client's consent straight onto the file note. The consent lives with the record, not in a drawer.
CallNote is built in Australia and hosted in AWS Sydney, AES-256 encrypted, and your data is never used to train AI models. For the deeper compliance detail - the audit log, the consent scripts, the NCCP suitability template - see the compliance section on the landing page.
Quick reference: consent by state
| State / Territory | Consent rule | Main Act |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | All parties | Surveillance Devices Act 2007 |
| VIC | One party (you) | Surveillance Devices Act 1999 |
| QLD | One party (you) | Invasion of Privacy Act 1971 |
| WA | All parties | Surveillance Devices Act 1998 |
| SA | All parties | Surveillance Devices Act 2016 |
| TAS | All parties | Listening Devices Act 1991 |
| ACT | All parties | Listening Devices Act 1992 |
| NT | One party (you) | Surveillance Devices Act 2007 |
Treat this table as a starting point, not the final word. The Acts have definitions, exceptions and use-and-disclosure rules that this summary can't fully cover, and they change. Check the current version for your state.
Related reading
If you record client calls, the recording is only half the job - the file note is the part that has to stand up. Our guide on how to write a compliant NCCP file note walks through the suitability standard and what a defensible note needs to include. And if you are weighing up tools, do AI note takers record your calls explains the difference between tools that record and tools that only receive an existing transcript - which matters a lot for the consent questions above.
Common questions
Is it illegal to record a phone call in Australia?
Not automatically. It depends on your state. In NSW, WA, SA, TAS and the ACT you generally need every party's consent. In VIC, QLD and NT you can usually record a call you are part of without telling the other person. For client work, getting consent every time is the only approach that is safe across all states.
Can I record a call if I am one of the people on it?
In Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, generally yes - you can record a private conversation you are a party to. In the five all-party states you generally cannot without everyone's consent. And even where recording is allowed, separate rules can restrict sharing or using that recording, so check before you pass it on.
Do I need to tell a client I am recording?
Legally it depends on the state, but practically yes. Telling the client and getting a clear yes covers you in every jurisdiction, meets your privacy obligations, and is almost always required by your licensee's policy. Capture that consent on the record with the date and time.
What happens if a call crosses state borders?
It is genuinely unsettled which state's law applies when, for example, you are in a one-party state and the client is in an all-party state. The cautious reading is that the stricter all-party rule could apply, which is another reason to get consent every time rather than relying on the most permissive state.
Does CallNote record my calls?
No. CallNote never records or transcribes audio. It receives the transcript your phone or meeting system already made and generates a structured file note from it. The recording itself, and its legality, stays with you and your phone system - CallNote stores the consent and the resulting note, sealed and timestamped.