Is it legal to record a phone call in QLD?

This page sets out what the Queensland Act says, section by section, and what it means if you record calls for work. It is general information, not legal advice. Section numbers and penalties are as they appear in the Act on the Queensland legislation website in October 2026 (the version in force from 1 July 2024). For every state and territory side by side, see our national guide, is it legal to record a phone call in Australia.

Can you record a conversation in QLD without consent?

If you are part of the conversation, yes. Section 43(1) makes it an offence to use a listening device to overhear, record, monitor or listen to a private conversation. Section 43(2)(a) then says the offence does not apply where the person using the listening device is a party to the private conversation. That is why Queensland is described as a one-party consent state.

If you are not part of the conversation, no. Recording two other people talking, or leaving a device running in a room after you walk out, is the offence in section 43(1). The maximum penalty stated in that section is 40 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years. A note to the section says an executive officer of a corporation may also be taken to have committed the offence under section 49A.

What counts as a private conversation

Section 4 defines a private conversation as words spoken by one person to another in circumstances that indicate those persons want the words heard only by themselves, or by themselves and some other person. It does not include words spoken where either person ought reasonably to expect they may be overheard, recorded, monitored or listened to by someone else who does not have the consent of either of them. A client call about a loan, a legal matter or a financial plan will usually be a private conversation.

What counts as a listening device

Section 4 defines a listening device as any instrument, apparatus, equipment or device capable of being used to overhear, record, monitor or listen to a private conversation simultaneously with its taking place. The Act dates from 1971 and the wording is wide. On its face it takes in a phone, a recorder or a laptop used to record a conversation as it happens. Hearing aids are carved out by section 42(1).

Who is a party

Section 42(2) gives "party" two meanings. The first is a person by or to whom words are spoken in the conversation. The second is a person who overhears, records, monitors or listens to those words with the express or implied consent of any of the people speaking. So a colleague who records a call because you asked them to is a party for the purposes of section 43. The difference matters later, because the consent needed to share a recording under section 45 is the consent of the people who actually spoke.

The rule most people miss: sharing the recording

Being allowed to record is the easy half. Section 45(1) says a person who was a party to a private conversation and used a listening device to record it commits an offence if they later communicate or publish to any other person any record of the conversation made with the device, or any statement prepared from such a record. The maximum penalty stated is the same as for unlawful recording: 40 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years.

The words "any statement prepared from such a record" are the part to read twice. The Act does not define them. On their ordinary meaning a transcript typed from the recording is a statement prepared from it, and a summary or note written by listening back may be one too. Handing on a statement of that kind is treated in the same way as handing on the audio.

Section 45(2) lists when the offence does not apply. The communication or publication is allowed where it:

• is made to another party to the conversation, or with the express or implied consent of all other parties who spoke or were spoken to (section 45(2)(a));
• is made in the course of legal proceedings (section 45(2)(b)), which section 45(3) defines to include courts, tribunals, inquiries and arbitrations in which evidence is or may be given;
• is not more than is reasonably necessary in the public interest, in the performance of a duty of the person making it, or for the protection of that person's lawful interests (section 45(2)(c));
• is made to a person who has, or is believed on reasonable grounds to have, such an interest in the conversation as to make the communication reasonable in the circumstances (section 45(2)(d)).

Recordings made unlawfully: publishing and evidence

Two more sections deal with recordings made in breach of section 43, for example by someone who was not a party.

• Section 44 makes it an offence to communicate or publish a private conversation, or a report of its substance, meaning or purport, that came to your knowledge through a listening device used in contravention of section 43. The maximum penalty stated is 40 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years. It does not apply where the communication is to a party to the conversation or with a party's express or implied consent.
• Section 46 says evidence of a private conversation that came to a person's knowledge through a listening device used in contravention of section 43 may not be given by that person in civil or criminal proceedings, subject to the exceptions in section 46(2), including where a party to the conversation consents.

Section 43(2)(b) also excludes "the unintentional hearing of a private conversation by means of a telephone" from the recording offence.

Queensland law at a glance

Phone calls: the federal law that also applies

The Queensland Act is about listening devices. Phone calls are also covered by a Commonwealth law, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, which applies in every state. Section 7(1) of that Act says a person shall not intercept a communication passing over a telecommunications system. Section 6(1) defines interception as listening to or recording a communication in its passage over the system without the knowledge of the person making the communication. Section 105 makes a contravention of section 7(1) an indictable offence punishable by imprisonment for up to 2 years.

The federal test turns on knowledge. A caller who has been told the call is recorded knows. A caller who has not been told may not. Whether a particular way of recording a call amounts to recording it "in its passage" over the network depends on how the recording is made, and that is a question to take to a lawyer if you plan to record without saying so. Telling the other person removes the question, which is one more reason to do it even in a one-party state.

Interstate calls from Queensland

The Queensland Act is your starting point when you are in Queensland. Your client may not be. New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT each restrict a party recording their own conversation without the consent of the others. It is not settled which state's law governs a call that crosses a border, and the cautious reading is that the stricter rule could apply to it.

If you call clients in other states, read the page for that state: New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia. A process built on asking every caller works in all of them.

Recording calls for business or note-taking in QLD

Most professionals who record calls do it for one reason: an accurate file note afterwards. For that purpose the Queensland Act raises three practical points.

1. Recording is the permitted part. If you are on the call, section 43(2)(a) covers you.
2. The note may be a "statement prepared from" the recording. If the note is written from the audio or from a transcript of it, treat saving it where colleagues can read it, sending it to a licensee or giving it to a third party as a communication that needs to fit section 45(2).
3. Other rules sit on top. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) applies to personal information held by organisations it covers, and a licensee, aggregator or professional body may have its own recording policy that is stricter than the Act.

Consent from the client deals with the first two at once, and it is what most licensee policies ask for anyway.

Consent wording you can use

Saying who will see the recording matters in Queensland because section 45(2)(a) is about consent to the communication, and a client can only agree to what they have been told. More wording for different call types is in call recording disclosure wording examples.

The example is fictional. The point is the first section: who was told what, the client's answer and the time, kept with the note it relates to.

Where a transcript-based note tool fits

CallNote does not record calls, does not join meetings as a bot and does not store call audio. It takes a transcript that already exists, from Aircall, Dialpad or Microsoft Teams, or one you paste, upload or forward by email, and turns it into a file note in your firm's own format. You review the note before it is published to your CRM.

That does not take the consent question away. If your phone system records or transcribes the call, the rules on this page apply to that system and to you. What changes is that there is no second recording made by a note tool to account for. The difference between tools that record and tools that work from a transcript is explained in do AI note takers record your calls and AI note takers that do not record. Examples by profession are on the pages for mortgage brokers, financial advisers and law firms.

Common questions