Step 4 of 5 · How long
How long do they have to answer?
Two jurisdictions publish a clock. Six do not. If you are planning a term around a pending answer, this is the step that decides whether you can.
The fork
Two clocks, differing by a factor of three
Victoria — 10 days, hedged
endeavour to respond to the request within 10 days and keep a record of their decision
S4 · Victoria, guidance step 2, updated 25 March 2026
Read the verb. “Endeavour to”, not “must within”. Victoria's 10 days is a target the guidance sets for principals, and the same sentence does carry a hard “must” on the record-keeping. [S4]
Tasmania — one calendar month, unhedged
The Principal makes a decision within one calendar month
S6 · Tasmania, policy v1.0, 12 May 2023
Tasmania's is flat and unhedged. Same question, two published answers, three times apart.
The other branch: no clock at all
Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and South Australia publish no decision timeframe in any page we read. Neither does the ACT or the Northern Territory, because neither publishes a procedure at all.
That is not the same as “they will be quick” or “they will be slow”. It means there is no published commitment to hold anyone to, so the only honest scheduling assumption in six of eight jurisdictions is that you do not know. Do not quote a family a start date off the back of a submitted request.
S6 and S4 are the only clocks; the rest is unestablished.
What Victoria requires regardless of the answer
document their consideration of the relevant factors
S4 · Victoria, guidance step 2, updated 25 March 2026
So in Victoria a decision without documented reasoning is not a compliant decision, whichever way it goes. That is a fair thing to ask about politely, and a poor thing to threaten anyone with. [S4]
Two clocks and six blanks
Two clocks and six blanks, on one line of the sheet, so you know which conversations you can put a date on. Send me every state's gate on one sheet.
The one-pager
Every state's gate on one sheet
The four questions that actually differ, the fork where Queensland and Western Australia contradict each other, and the two jurisdictions nobody has published. Printed to keep beside the phone.
- 01 Who may make the request, per jurisdiction, and the two states that disagree
- 02 Professional indemnity and public liability minimums, with the blanks left blank
- 03 The instrument each department requires, and who signs it
…and 8 more, including the two published decision clocks and the jurisdictions we could not establish.
Get the one-pager