Is it legal to record a conversation in Western Australia?
In WA, being in the conversation isn't enough to let you record. You need everyone's agreement, or the recording has to be reasonably necessary to protect your own interests, whatever your reason.
- Recording a talk you're in
- Usually not, and your reason for recording doesn't change it. A participant needs either everyone's agreement, or a recording reasonably needed to protect their own interests 1
- Recording one you're not in
- An offence. One speaker agreeing does make you a party, which lifts the non-party limb — but WA then bans recording a conversation you ARE part of, so you still need every principal party's consent, or one party's consent plus a recording reasonably necessary to protect that party's lawful interests 1
- Sharing a recording
- Restricted. Publishing or passing on a recording is a separate offence unless an exception applies, such as everyone's consent, a court, or protecting your interests 1
- Biggest penalty
- Up to $5,000 or 12 months in prison for an individual. A company faces up to $50,000 1
- Phone calls
- A call you're on can only be recorded within the same limits as any conversation you're in. Intercepting a call still crossing the network is a separate Commonwealth offence 2
In Western Australia, being in the conversation is not enough to let you record the conversation. You need everyone’s agreement, or the recording has to be reasonably necessary to protect your own interests. 1
Your reason for recording makes no difference to that. Keeping it to yourself is not a way around it. 1
Passing a recording on is a separate offence again, with its own list of defences. 1
Can you record a conversation you’re part of in WA?
Usually not.
The ban has two limbs, and the second is the one most people don’t expect. It is an offence to record a private conversation you are not part of, and it is an offence to record one you are. A private conversation is one the people having it clearly meant to keep to themselves; if you’d reasonably expect to be overheard, it isn’t private to start with. 1
s 5(1) Recording is banned, even for someone in the conversation Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a person shall not install, use, or maintain, or cause to be installed, used, or maintained, a listening device — (a) to record, monitor, or listen to a private conversation to which that person is not a party; or (b) to record a private conversation to which that person is a party. Penalty: (a) for an individual: $5 000 or imprisonment for 12 months, or both; (b) for a body corporate: $50 000.
A separate subsection sets out when a participant can record anyway. It lists four situations. Two are for law enforcement; the other two are open to an ordinary person. 1
s 5(3)(c)–(d) The two ways an ordinary participant may record Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(3) Subsection (1)(b) does not apply to the installation, use, or maintenance of a listening device by or on behalf of a person who is a party to a private conversation if — […] (c) each principal party to the private conversation consents expressly or impliedly to that installation, use, or maintenance; or (d) a principal party to the private conversation consents expressly or impliedly to that installation, use, or maintenance and the installation, use, or maintenance is reasonably necessary for the protection of the lawful interests of that principal party.
The first is consent. If everyone actually speaking agrees, you can record — though by then it isn’t a secret recording. 1
The second is the one that matters in practice: the recording has to be reasonably necessary to protect your own lawful interests. That is a real threshold, not a formality. It covers capturing a threat, or keeping evidence of a serious dispute where you would otherwise have no proof. Recording because it is easier than taking notes doesn’t qualify, and neither does a vague sense that it might come in handy. 1
Can you record a conversation you’re not part of?
No, on the same terms. Recording other people’s private conversation is the first limb of the ban, and a speaker’s consent does less for you here than it does in other states. 1
s 3 Who counts as a party to a conversation Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
party means — (a) in relation to a private conversation — (i) a person by or to whom words are spoken in the course of the conversation; or (ii) a person who, with the express or implied consent of any of the persons by or to whom words are spoken in the course of the conversation, records, monitors or listens to those words; […]
Record with the agreement of someone in the conversation and you count as a party to the conversation. That moves you out of the first limb of the ban and into the second, which is the one that catches participants. You face the same two tests: has everyone actually speaking consented, or is the recording reasonably necessary to protect that speaker’s lawful interests? 1
What else falls outside the WA ban?
A short list, and most of it is official. 1
s 5(2) What the recording ban does not reach Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to — (a) the installation, use, or maintenance of a listening device in accordance with a listening device warrant issued under Part 4; (b) the installation, use, or maintenance of a listening device in accordance with an emergency authorisation issued under Part 4; (c) the installation, use, or maintenance of a listening device in accordance with a law of the Commonwealth; (d) the use of a listening device in accordance with Part 5; or (e) the use of a listening device resulting in the unintentional hearing of a private conversation.
Warrants and emergency authorisations, use under Commonwealth law, and the undercover and covert powers the Act sets out elsewhere. Hearing a private conversation by accident was never the offence in the first place. 1
Several are open to an ordinary person. A party can also record with one speaker’s consent where there are reasonable grounds to believe it is in the public interest, and so can someone acting for them. The first of the two below is an emergency. 1
s 28 Emergency use in the public interest Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
A person may use a listening device to record, monitor or listen to a private conversation if at the time of use there are reasonable grounds for believing that the circumstances are so serious and the matter is of such urgency that the use of the listening device is in the public interest.
The circumstances have to be serious enough and urgent enough that recording is in the public interest. It is written for a crisis, not for convenience. 1
Using it brings a duty. You have to deliver a written report to a judge without delay. It has to give the device you used, when and for how long, and the name of anyone you recorded. It also has to give the circumstances that made you think recording was necessary, and what you mean to do with the material. Not reporting is its own offence, carrying up to $5,000 or 12 months in prison for an individual. 1
s 30(1)-(2) Using the emergency route means reporting it Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(1) A person who uses a listening device or an optical surveillance device under section 28 or 29 must deliver without delay a written report to a judge — (a) giving particulars of the device used; (b) giving particulars of the use of the device and the period during which it was used; (c) specifying the name, if known, of any person whose private conversation was recorded, monitored or listened to or whose private activity was observed or visually recorded; (d) specifying the circumstances that caused the person to believe that it was necessary to record, monitor or listen to the private conversation or observe or visually record the private activity; and (e) containing particulars of the general use made or to be made of any evidence or information obtained by use of the device. (2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence. Penalty: (a) for an individual: $5 000 or imprisonment for 12 months, or both; (b) for a body corporate: $50 000. […]
One more thing cuts across the whole of this part. If anything you did while installing or using the device broke another law, none of these public-interest routes is open to you at all. 1
The second covers recording for someone in your care. 1
s 26(3) Recording on behalf of a child or protected person Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(3) A person who has under his or her care, supervision or authority a child or a protected person who is a principal party to a private conversation may, on behalf of the child or protected person, use a listening device to record, monitor or listen to the private conversation if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the use of the listening device — (a) will contribute towards the protection of the best interests of the child or protected person; and (b) is in the public interest.
A parent or carer can record on behalf of a child, or of an adult who needs a substitute decision-maker. They have to reasonably believe two things: that it will protect that person’s best interests, and that it is in the public interest. 1
Can you record a phone call in WA?
Usually not — a call is treated like any other conversation, so the same two tests apply. 1
Commonwealth law adds a further offence: intercepting a call while it is still crossing the network. 2
s 6(1) What the Commonwealth means by intercepting a call Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth) 2
(1) For the purposes of this Act (other than Schedule 1), but subject to this section, interception of a communication passing over a telecommunications system consists of listening to or recording, by any means, such a communication in its passage over that telecommunications system without the knowledge of the person making the communication.
Timing separates them. Recording the call once it reaches your phone is outside the Commonwealth ban. Catching it in transit is inside it, and carries up to 2 years in prison — more than WA’s own offence. 2
Can you share a recording in WA?
Publishing or communicating a private conversation you learned through a listening device is its own offence, whether or not making the recording was lawful. 1
s 9(1) Sharing a recording is a separate offence Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person shall not knowingly publish or communicate a private conversation, or a report or record of a private conversation, or a record of a private activity that has come to the person's knowledge as a direct or indirect result of the use of a listening device or an optical surveillance device. Penalty: (a) for an individual: $5 000 or imprisonment for 12 months, or both; (b) for a body corporate: $50 000.
The defences come in two parts, and both have to hold. 1
s 9(2)–(3) The defences for sharing a recording Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA) 1
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply — (a) where the publication or communication is made — (i) to a party to the private conversation or the private activity; (ii) with the express or implied consent of each principal party to the private conversation or private activity; […] (v) in the course of the duty of the person making the publication or communication; (vi) for the protection of the lawful interests of the person making the publication or communication; […] (ix) in the course of any legal proceedings; […] (c) where the person making the publication or communication believes on reasonable grounds that it was necessary to make that publication or communication in connection with an imminent threat of serious violence to persons or of substantial damage to property. (3) Subsection (2) only provides a defence if the publication or communication — (a) is not more than is reasonably necessary — (i) in the public interest; (ii) in the performance of a duty of the person making the publication or communication; or (iii) for the protection of the lawful interests of the person making the publication or communication; (b) is made to a person who has, or is believed on reasonable grounds by the person making the publication or communication to have, such an interest in the private conversation or activity as to make the publication or communication reasonable under the circumstances in which it is made; […]
First, the sharing has to fall into one of the listed situations. You can share it with a party to the conversation, or with the consent of everyone actually speaking. You can share it in the course of your duty, or to protect your own lawful interests, or in legal proceedings. And you can share it where you reasonably believe that is needed because of an imminent threat of serious violence or substantial damage to property. 1
Second, the sharing has to go no further than is reasonably necessary, whether in the public interest, in carrying out a duty, or to protect lawful interests. It also has to go to someone with enough of a stake in the conversation to make sharing reasonable. 1
You have a recording in WA. What now?
Was it lawful to make? The usual routes are everyone actually speaking agreeing, or the recording was reasonably necessary to protect your own lawful interests. Being someone in the conversation agreeing does not answer this on its own, and neither does keeping the recording to yourself. 1
If neither applies, making the recording was an offence, whether or not you were in the conversation. 1
Passing it on. Sharing is restricted whether or not the recording was lawful. You need one of the listed situations, and the sharing has to go no further than is reasonably necessary, to someone with a real stake in the conversation. 1
The figures. Recording unlawfully and sharing unlawfully each carry up to $5,000 or 12 months in prison, or both, for an individual. A company faces up to $50,000. 1
What it costs to get it wrong
Common questions
Is it legal to record a conversation without consent in WA?
Usually not, even if you're in the conversation. Western Australia bans recording a private conversation unless every person agrees, or you're a participant and it's reasonably needed to protect your own lawful interests. 1
Can you secretly record someone to protect yourself in WA?
Yes, within limits. If you're in the conversation and the recording is reasonably necessary to protect your lawful interests, it's allowed. That covers things like evidence of a threat or a serious dispute, not simple convenience. 1
Can you record a phone call in WA?
Only within the same rule as any conversation. Being on the call doesn't give you a free pass; you'd need everyone's consent or the protection-of-interests ground. Intercepting a call still crossing the network is a separate Commonwealth offence. 2
Is it illegal to record someone you're not talking to in WA?
Usually yes, and it carries up to 12 months in prison. If someone in the conversation agrees to you recording, the Act treats you as a party — but that only moves you to the rule for participants, which in WA still needs everyone's consent or a protective reason. 1
What is the penalty for illegally recording someone in WA?
Up to $5,000 or 12 months in prison for an individual, and up to $50,000 for a company. The same maximum applies to unlawful recording and to sharing a recording you shouldn't. 1
Every source on this page
The small numbered marks throughout this page point to this list — 1 means source 1 below.
- Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA), ss 3, 5, 9, 25, 26, 28, 30
- Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth), ss 5F, 6, 7, 105
Sourced from the Western Australian Legislation website at 7 Sept 2026. For the latest information on Western Australian legislation, visit www.legislation.wa.gov.au. © State of Western Australia. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Reproduced without changes. This is not an official version and its use is not endorsed by the State. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation at 7 Sept 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government law please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Reproduced without changes. This is not an official version. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
Other rules for Western Australia
- Are e-bikes legal in Western Australia? Legal, with conditions
- Are e-scooters legal in Western Australia? Legal, with conditions
- How high can a fence be in WA? Varies by area
- What are the pool fence rules in WA? Legal, with conditions
Recording conversations rules elsewhere
- Australian Capital Territory Legal, with conditions
- New South Wales Legal, with conditions
- Northern Territory Legal, with conditions
- Queensland Legal, with conditions
- South Australia Legal, with conditions
- Tasmania Legal, with conditions
- Victoria Legal, with conditions
Page history
Every change to this page
- 23 Sept 2026
- First published. Current to the Surveillance Devices Act 1998 (WA), consolidated version current from 5 April 2023.