How much does public liability insurance cost?

How much does public liability cost for your trade?

The table shows 17 trades, as at October 2026. Half our clients in that trade paid less than the middle premium, and half paid more.

What CIB clients paid for public liability, a year

These figures mix the limits our clients chose, from $5 million to $20 million, so they are not the premium of a $20 million policy. A $5 million policy in the mix is usually a long-standing client who has kept an older limit.

These figures are public liability only. They do not include tools, vehicles or personal accident cover. Every premium includes all fees and charges.

What does one real policy look like, line by line?

A concreter on our books on the Gold Coast holds $20 million of public liability, turns over about $500,000 with one full-time and one part-time worker, and carries a $500 excess. In July 2026 the policy cost $1,265 for the year.

That is well below the middle premium for concreters, so the price is not typical. We show it for its schedule, the part of the policy that lists your cover and the terms on it.

The premium bought cover with four limits printed on this schedule:

• no cover for excavation deeper than 3.5 metres, or for demolishing a structure more than 10 metres high;
• no cover for anything connected with silica, in any form;
• damage to underground pipes and cables is covered only if the location was checked with the authorities, recorded in writing and traced before work started;
• a working-at-height condition, with no work above 10 metres.

Concrete cutting can raise silica dust, so for a concreter that line is not a technicality. The premium does not show it. The schedule does.

We check that the limits on the schedule fit the work you do. We do it before you pay, so a claim is not where you find out. How height, depth and hot work terms fall trade by trade, and the claims we have seen when they bite, are in what does public liability exclude for your trade? Cover set up for a head contract is on contractor public liability insurance.

Why do two businesses in the same trade pay such different premiums?

Half our plumbers paid between $1,136 and $3,327.

Turnover moves the premium most. Take a sole-trader electrician on our books in south-east Queensland, turning over $100,000 with $10 million of cover. They paid $868 at renewal in March 2026, the middle figure among our Queensland sole-trader electricians. A Brisbane drainage plumbing business with 10 full-time workers and $5 million of turnover paid $8,992 in August 2026 for $20 million of cover. Its schedule carried hot work and silica terms.

For businesses turning over up to $250,000, the middle premium was lower: $864 for electricians, $640 for cleaners and $1,206 for plumbers.

Claims history comes second. Usually a claim lifts your premium by cutting the number of insurers willing to quote. The underwriting agencies least willing to take on risk decline first, and the premium rises because less competition is left. One plumber we insure in Victoria, working in high-rise apartment buildings, was paying $22,000 a year with a direct insurer. After one damage claim the insurer declined to renew. We placed the risk with a general liability insurer for close to $14,500 a year with a $5,000 excess.

Then come what your business physically does, what you pay subcontractors and the limit you choose. Where your business is based matters too: the policy is rated on its situation address, your main business premises. The excess moves the premium only to a very small degree.

Declare your real subcontractor payments, because a misstatement can reduce or defeat a claim. Our guide if a subcontractor is hurt on your job, can you be held liable? explains why.

Does $20 million of public liability cost much more than $10 million?

In our experience, doubling the limit does not double the premium, because most claims never come near the top of a limit and insurers generally rate the upper part of it more cheaply.

Do not work out the difference from the table. The businesses holding $20 million with us are generally the bigger ones, so their higher figures come mostly from turnover.

Often the limit is not your choice. A head contract's insurance schedule almost always asks for at least $20 million now, and $20 million is the figure usually written into a commercial lease. It is worth quoting both limits.

How much does public liability cost for an event, and can you arrange it?

Cover we arrange for a one-off event starts at about $600 to $700 and rises with the kind of event. We help most when you run an ongoing event or a series of them. A one-day market stall holder can usually buy a policy direct for about $200 to $300, which is the cheaper route for a single stall.

Is public liability insurance worth what it costs?

One liability claim can cost far more than years of premiums, and defending it costs money even when you dispute the allegation.

Should your liability still be in a package?

Ask whether it should still be a package. A packaged business policy is rated off a table, and when your work, size or claims sit at its edge, the table keeps charging more. Plumbers above about $1 million of turnover feel it most right now, because of water claims in strata buildings. The wider trend is in why public liability premiums keep rising. At around $15,000 to $20,000 of premium, a standalone general liability policy, quoted by an underwriter through a broker, is worth comparing with the package. Our general liability insurance page says when standalone cover fits.

What can you do about the premium?

• Describe your business as it is today, including any second trade.
• Weigh a higher excess against how often you claim. On many of the liability wordings we place, the excess also applies to the cost of defending a claim. Our guide on why we sometimes recommend a higher excess goes through it.
• Have the market tested at every renewal. We can place a business pack across a panel of up to nine insurers.

We read the schedule as well as the premium. Many of the trade, business and liability policies we place carry at least one trade endorsement, a term added to the policy because of the work you do, such as a height, depth, hot work or subcontractor term. Where a restriction has to stay, we explain it in plain English on your documents when we first place your cover, at every change and at renewal.

Want to know where your business sits in that premium table?

Tell us what you do, your turnover and what you pay subcontractors, and a broker will quote it properly.

Talk to a broker on 07 3292 1111.

Or ask for a call back