Is a licence from another state valid in Australian Capital Territory?

Not automatically. Licensing is administered state by state and there is no national register. Mutual recognition schemes exist and can let a licence holder apply to be recognised in another jurisdiction, but that is an application the tradesperson has to have made — it is not automatic, and the register for Australian Capital Territory is what settles it.

What percentage of ACT businesses publish an ABN you can check?

11.7% of the 778 ACT businesses in this directory, against 9.8% nationally.

Does an unlicensed tradesperson have to fix bad work?

Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply regardless of whether the tradesperson is licensed — an unlicensed operator cannot escape them by being unlicensed. Enforcing them is another matter, which is why the licence check is worth the minute it takes. If it has already gone wrong, see the guide on what to do when work goes wrong in Australian Capital Territory.

Check a tradie licence in ACT

Short answer

In the Australian Capital Territory, licences are issued and published by Access Canberra, covering construction occupations licensing. Search the licence number the business gives you on that register before work starts — it is free and takes about a minute. There is no national licence register in Australia, so a licence from another state does not automatically apply to work done in Australian Capital Territory.

Licensing in Australia is a state matter. There is no national register, no single number to look up, and a licence issued in one state does not automatically authorise work in another. In the Australian Capital Territory, the authority is Access Canberra.

Which register to search in Australian Capital Territory

Access Canberra covers construction occupations licensing.

Access Canberra administers construction occupations licensing and publishes a public register. The ACT licenses a broad set of construction occupations individually, so it is usually possible to confirm the specific person doing the work rather than only the business.

What to actually look at when the register returns a result

That the licence is current, not expired or suspended. An expired licence is the single most common problem a check finds.
That the name on the licence matches the name on your quote. A licence held by a related company is not a licence held by the business you are contracting with, and it is the contracting entity that owes you the work.
That the licence class covers this job. A general building licence is not an electrical licence, and a plumbing licence does not automatically include gas fitting.
Any conditions on the licence. Conditions exist for a reason and are published where the register shows them.

What 778 ACT businesses publish about themselves

A licence is not the only thing you can check from outside a business, and the rest is not encouraging. Across every ACT business in this directory:

What we checked	ACT	Australia
Publish an ABN we could confirm	11.7%	9.8%
Listed phone matches their own website	45%	39.2%
Listed phone contradicts their own website	5.5%	4.8%
Website responded when we checked	67.9%	64.7%
Median Google reviews	36	29

687 ACT businesses — 88.3% of them — publish no ABN anywhere a customer can find it. An ABN is free to obtain and free to publish, so this is not evidence of anything improper. It does mean the cheapest identity check available to you is unavailable for most of the market, and that asking is reasonable.

What a licence check does not tell you

Whether the work will be any good. A licence is a floor, not a rating.
Whether they carry insurance. That is a separate question with a separate answer, and you should ask it.
Whether the licensed person will be the one on site. Ask who is actually doing the work and whether they are supervised.
Whether they are solvent. A licence stays current right up until a business stops trading.

Common questions

Who licenses tradespeople in the Australian Capital Territory?: Access Canberra, covering construction occupations licensing. Access Canberra administers construction occupations licensing and publishes a public register. The ACT licenses a broad set of construction occupations individually, so it is usually possible to confirm the specific person doing the work rather than only the business.
Is a licence from another state valid in Australian Capital Territory?: Not automatically. Licensing is administered state by state and there is no national register. Mutual recognition schemes exist and can let a licence holder apply to be recognised in another jurisdiction, but that is an application the tradesperson has to have made — it is not automatic, and the register for Australian Capital Territory is what settles it.
What percentage of ACT businesses publish an ABN you can check?: 11.7% of the 778 ACT businesses in this directory, against 9.8% nationally.
Does an unlicensed tradesperson have to fix bad work?: Consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply regardless of whether the tradesperson is licensed — an unlicensed operator cannot escape them by being unlicensed. Enforcing them is another matter, which is why the licence check is worth the minute it takes. If it has already gone wrong, see the guide on what to do when work goes wrong in Australian Capital Territory.

How to check a tradesperson's licence in Australian Capital Territory