Through strong, member-driven advocacy, the Auctioneers and Valuers Association of Australia (AVAA) is championing practical reform to cut unnecessary red tape, reduce duplication across jurisdictions, and ensure regulation supports professional standards while allowing auctioneers to focus on serving clients and building sustainable businesses.
Auctioneers of goods operate at the centre of complex transactions. They bring together buyers and sellers, manage funds, verify goods, and facilitate outcomes that rely on trust. To support this, a wide range of regulatory frameworks apply. At the federal level, auctioneers engage with obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth), the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Each plays an important role, yet their interaction can create complexity in practice.
For example, an auctioneer handling a consignment may need to verify the identity of a vendor to meet the emerging anti-money laundering / counter terrorism finance regulatory expectations, assess provenance and authenticity to meet consumer law obligations, and collect and store personal data in line with privacy requirements. These are all reasonable steps. When they sit across different frameworks, with different thresholds and expectations, they can require multiple processes for what is effectively the same transaction.
At the same time, the auctioneer must manage client funds through a regulated trust account. Under laws such as Queensland’s Agents Financial Administration Act 2014, this involves strict requirements around receipting, disbursement, reconciliation and audit. In practice, this can mean reconciling trust accounts daily, ensuring every transaction is documented to a prescribed standard, and preparing for annual audits. When combined with federal reporting expectations around financial flows, the administrative load increases further. Similar arrangements exist under the Property Agents and Land Transactions Act 2016 (Tas), individuals conducting auctions in Tasmania must hold a licence issued in the category of General Auctioneer
Licensing requirements add another layer. An auctioneer operating across jurisdictions may need to understand and comply with different licensing frameworks, eligibility requirements and conduct rules. Where auctions involve specific asset classes, such as motor vehicles, additional licensing regimes can apply. This creates a situation where a single business must interpret and comply with multiple systems that are not always aligned.
Online auctions provide another practical example. An auctioneer selling goods to interstate or international buyers must ensure compliance with Australian Consumer Law, manage privacy obligations for bidder data, consider cybersecurity risks, and apply consistent standards of description and disclosure. At the same time, they may be managing insurance requirements, including professional indemnity thresholds that reflect the risk of misrepresentation or valuation error.
Individually, these obligations support confidence in the market. Together, they can result in duplicated processes, increased cost, and time away from core business activity. For small businesses, this often means hours each week spent on compliance tasks rather than clients, staff and growth. It can also affect how quickly transactions are completed and how confidently businesses invest in expansion.
This is where AVAA’s member-driven advocacy is critical. It brings real examples like these into policy discussions, ensuring that regulators understand how frameworks operate in practice. Through the AVAA Government Affairs Committee, professionals provide advice on regulatory reforms to maintain strong consumer protectionwhile simplifying how obligations interact across jurisdictions. The aim is to cut the red tape burden faced by small businesses in the sector.
AVAA supports the work of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) which is a lead player in a national push to call for a 25 per cent reduction in unnecessary regulation by 2030. For auctioneers, this is about creating a clearer, more consistent system that supports professionalism, reduces administrative burden, and allows businesses to continue delivering trusted outcomes for their clients.
That is the outcome AVAA continues to pursue, guided by the direct experience of its members.
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Interested In Finding Out More?
If you’re interested in AVAA’s member-driven policy advocacy, email to government.affairs@avaa.com.au or telephone 1300 928 165. You can also stay up to date by following AVAA on LinkedIn, X/Twitter and Facebook.
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