WA Small Business CCTV Rebate 2026: How to Be First in the Queue

The Small Business Development Corporation, working with Crime Stoppers WA, has published a CCTV Rebate for Western Australian retail and customer-facing small businesses. The idea is simple: fewer offences against small shops, and footage police can use when something happens. The money is real, the conditions are specific, and the program is designed so that the businesses with their paperwork ready get funded and the rest find the round closed.

The offer in one paragraph

A once-off rebate of up to 50 per cent of the cost, excluding GST, of a new internal CCTV system or an upgrade to an existing one, to a maximum of $2,000. The system must be installed by a licensed security installer after the business has received written pre-approval. The rebate is paid after the install, against the invoice. Three-quarters of the pool is set aside for metropolitan applicants and a quarter for regional.

Who it is for

The eligibility list is tighter than the headline suggests. At the time of applying, and for the whole project, the business must:

• be a retail or customer-facing business in WA, meaning it sells goods or services directly to the public from a physical storefront or service location;
• have fewer than 20 employees by headcount, counting full-time, part-time and casual staff, but not owners, non-executive directors or contractors;
• be operating, with an active ABN, and be registered for GST;
• not be insolvent, in administration or being struck off, have no bankrupt or undischarged directors, and have no unresolved grant acquittals;
• not be a subsidiary of a corporate group with 20 or more employees in total.

Government-owned properties at any level are excluded. One application is allowed per retail property. If you lease, you need the landlord's or agent's written consent before you apply, and it goes in with the application.

In practice this is cafés, bottle shops, pharmacies, salons, newsagents, gyms, small supermarkets, phone repairers, pet shops, bakeries, vets and allied-health rooms with a reception counter. If the public pays you across a counter, read on.

Why "first in the queue" is the whole game

Three design choices in the program decide who gets paid.

It is assessed first-come. The SBDC says the date and time a complete application is submitted sets its place in the queue. Not when you started it, not when you registered interest: when a complete application landed.

Incomplete applications do not get a place. An application without a valid quote, a missing landlord letter, a photo instead of a PDF, is not in the queue at all. The SBDC may ask for the missing piece, but says that depends on volume and that complete applications are prioritised. Submitting placeholder documents to grab a spot gets the application declined.

The round closes when the money runs out. Anyone mid-application at that point sees a "round closed" message and cannot submit.

Put those together and the strategy writes itself: have every document, including a compliant installer's quote, uploaded to your SmartyGrants account before the round opens, so that lodging on day one is a matter of minutes. The SBDC itself recommends registering on SmartyGrants early and using SmartyFile to pre-load documents.

The pre-opening checklist

Every document has to be an unredacted PDF. The SBDC says PNG, JPG and Word files are not accepted, and that the bank statement is required to validate eligibility and guard against fraud.

What the system has to be

The quote, and then the install, must meet the SBDC's minimum technical standard:

• hard-wired cameras, with at least one on the customer entrance and one on the point of sale;
• 5 megapixels or better on every camera;
• a recorder with a hard drive of at least 3 terabytes;
• infrared or low-light capability so it records at night;
• a time and date stamp on all footage;
• footage exportable in a standard video format to a USB drive.

Wireless and battery-powered systems are excluded outright, and the SBDC explains why: they rely on an internet connection, have limited range, carry a hacking risk, and go dark when the batteries are not recharged. The program does not name or endorse any brand; the choice is yours, provided the system meets the standard and is installed hard-wired by a licensed security company.

For a typical shop that is a modest system: a camera at the door set for faces, a camera over the till and counter, one or two more covering the floor and the back door, a recorder with a 3TB or larger drive, signage, and the export and time-stamp settings checked at handover. If you already have an old analogue system, an upgrade to this standard also qualifies, as long as it is done after pre-approval. Our rebate-spec CCTV installation page maps each requirement to how we build it.

The licensed-installer rule

The system must be installed by a current WA Security Installer Licence holder, working for a business that holds a Security Agent Licence under the Security and Related Activities (Control) Act 1996. The SBDC does not keep an approved-installer list; WA Police hold the list of licence holders, and the SBDC tells applicants to ask any installer for their licence number. A security agent or consultant can prepare the quote for pre-approval, but the person doing the physical install needs the installer licence.

DIY installs are excluded, and the SBDC notes the system does not have to be supplied by the installer, so a business could in principle buy equipment separately and pay a licensed installer to fit it. Whether that is wise is another matter; the installer is the one who has to put their licence number on a quote that says the system meets the specification.

After pre-approval: two clocks start

The pre-approval email is the starting gun, and the SBDC is explicit that installing before it arrives makes the work ineligible. Once it lands:

1. 60 days to have the system installed, fully paid, with a tax invoice that lists the technical specifications and proof of payment in hand.
2. Inside that window, register the system on the WA Police Cam-Map and keep the confirmation email.
3. 14 days after the install to submit the Service Completion form from the link in the pre-approval email.
4. If the SBDC asks for anything, five working days to answer.

The rebate is paid after the completion form is accepted. The system has to be fully paid for first; the rebate reimburses, it does not fund the install up front.

The obligations that come with it

Most of these are things any WA retailer with cameras already has to do under the Surveillance Devices Act 1998, but the rebate makes them conditions of the money:

• tell staff, including new starters, in writing that surveillance devices are in use, and explain what is expected of them around privacy;
• keep cameras visible and put signs at every entrance so staff and customers know recording is in operation;
• no cameras in fitting rooms, showers, toilets or change rooms;
• keep the field of view off neighbouring private property, and tell neighbours if their premises are visible;
• keep the system in working order;
• store footage securely and give it to WA Police when they ask; refusing can lead to the SBDC recovering the rebate;
• keep records for 12 months after payment;
• take part in an evaluation survey or an audit if selected, and the SBDC says some audits will include a physical inspection of the cameras.

The SBDC's own FAQ also flags audio: recording conversations is tightly regulated in WA, and most retail systems disable audio entirely. And it notes the Privacy Act applies to businesses turning over more than $3 million or handling sensitive data, which will not catch most eligible applicants but is worth knowing.

Frequently asked questions