The line The solarium ban

A solarium ban can be written as an offence, or as a banned source.

There is more than one way to write a solarium ban. Victoria's instrument makes conducting a commercial tanning practice an offence; Queensland's classes a relevant solarium as a banned radiation source. What follows sets out both, in the terms each law uses, with the dates each instrument gives.

General information about the law for beauty businesses in each state, not legal or health advice. Your council or state health department has the final word.

Light

commercial solarium V Q banned Victoria: management licences cancelled from the commencement on 1 January 2015. banned Queensland: a banned radiation source, a relevant solarium.

laser hair removal N V Q W S T A NT The NSW Public Health Regulation 2022 declares laser hair removal not to be a skin penetration procedure, so it sits above the line.

IPL, intense pulsed light N V Q W S T A NT

ARPANSA's page, as it stood in October 2026, listed cosmetic lasers as regulated only in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia, and IPL only in Tasmania; in the remaining states and territories it listed no licensing requirements at all.

the skin hairdressing N V Q make-up N V Q manicure and pedicure N V Q lash and brow V Q

NSW Health counts nail work where a treatment involves skin penetration, and its notification form lists manicures and pedicures among the procedures businesses notify.

Through the skin

waxing N V Q W

electrolysis N V Q W

cosmetic tattooing N V Q W

ear and body piercing N V Q W Queensland leaves out ear or nose piercing done with a closed instrument and a sterilised single-use cartridge.

body art tattooing N V Q W

Cosmetic injectables are medical. This guide stops here. NSW Health's beauty treatment page says prescription-only medicines given by injection, such as botulinum toxin and injectable dermal fillers, can only be administered by a registered medical practitioner or a nurse practitioner.

Letters, left to right: N New South Wales, V Victoria, Q Queensland, W Western Australia, S South Australia, T Tasmania, A the ACT, NT the Northern Territory.

A solid letter: the state's law asks something of that work.

An outlined letter: the state's skin penetration law leaves it out, or, for lasers and IPL, ARPANSA's list shows no licensing there. Other rules may still apply.

A blank: nothing is held here either way, so ask the state.

Each service below the line is set against the same four states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

Victoria: the ban as an offence

Victoria's ban is a criminal offence. In Victoria, running a commercial tanning practice, also called a solarium, is an offence under the Radiation Act 2005, and the Act's own provision forbids offering or giving the use of a tanning unit for a fee or reward, and operating one, or offering to operate one, for a fee or reward.

For that offence, the penalty is 60 penalty units for an individual and 300 penalty units for a body corporate.

The Act defines what it is banning. A tanning unit, in its definition, is an electrically powered radiation apparatus built to tan human skin with ultraviolet radiation.

The ban arrived through an amendment, and the Act's endnotes give its parts their own dates. The Radiation Amendment Act 2013 was assented to on 22 October 2013; sections 4 to 10 and 12 to 25 commenced on 1 June 2014, and sections 11 and 26 on 1 January 2015. The transitional provision turns the ban on the licensing system that preceded it: once section 11 commences, the Secretary must cancel any management licence that authorised a radiation practice involving a tanning unit.

What the Victorian law carries besides the offence

The Victorian offence is backed by ordinary enforcement machinery, and the department's page describes how it is used: the department takes enforcement action on possible breaches, which can include seizing tanning beds and taking commercial operators to court.

The Act's inspection powers reach the premises. Where a search warrant authorises access to a particular property, the occupier must allow access, and, unless there is a reasonable excuse, obstructing or hindering an authorised officer while they exercise a power under the Act is a separate offence under it.

The department may keep property it has seized as evidence of a possible breach of the Radiation Act 2005 for no more than 12 months, unless a prosecution has begun.

Queensland: the ban as a banned source

Queensland's ban is a radiation source, not an offence heading. For section 47(1) of its Radiation Safety Act, a relevant solarium is prescribed to be a banned radiation source in relation to the possession of that solarium.

The Regulation defines its word twice over, and both definitions matter. A solarium is an electrically-powered apparatus designed to produce tanning of human skin by exposure of the skin to non-ionising radiation emitted by the apparatus. A relevant solarium is a solarium that, immediately before the commencement of the Radiation Safety Amendment Regulation (No. 1) 2013, was a relevant solarium under the 2010 regulation, or another solarium, other than a solarium owned by an individual and not used for a business.

That last clause is the reach of the Queensland ban in one line: a solarium owned by an individual, and not used for a business, is not a relevant solarium, so the possession ban is aimed at the commercial machine. The same Regulation treats lasers the same way in its apparatus rules, prescribing a laser and a relevant solarium as radiation apparatus for the Act.

The two instruments, side by side

Read together, the two instruments show two different drafts of the same policy. One writes a prohibition aimed at conduct, with a penalty attached; the other writes a prohibition aimed at the machine, by classing it as a thing the law bans you from possessing.

The two instruments, as each one states itself
Instrument	Commencement in the instrument	What it makes of the commercial practice
Victorian Radiation Act 2005, as amended by the Radiation Amendment Act 2013	The amending Act: assent 22 October 2013; sections 4 to 10 and 12 to 25 on 1 June 2014; sections 11 and 26 on 1 January 2015.	An offence to conduct a commercial tanning practice, 60 penalty units for a person and 300 for a body corporate; management licences for tanning units cancelled from the commencement of section 11.
Queensland Radiation Safety Regulation 2021, section 67	No commencement date for the ban is held on this page.	A relevant solarium is a banned radiation source as to possession; a solarium owned by an individual and not used for a business is not a relevant solarium.

This guide does not state a commencement for Queensland's ban, a date or an instrument for New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT or the Northern Territory, or a position for the Northern Territory at all; the drawing's letters are blank for those states because that is what is held, and the next page to open is the state's own radiation regulator.

The bans' reasons are also outside this page. Nothing here explains why any state banned commercial solaria; this page sets out what the two instruments say, and the dates and clauses they state for themselves.

Where the skin line is drawn, state by state