Applications for the state CCTV rebate open on Monday 19 October 2026. It is run by the Small Business Development Corporation in partnership with Crime Stoppers WA under the Small Business Resilience Program, and it is aimed at retail and customer facing small businesses.
The program pays 50 per cent of the cost excluding GST, drawn from a pool of 1.15 million dollars that is split 75 per cent to metropolitan applicants and 25 per cent to regional ones. It is not the same thing as a council rebate, and the differences are where businesses lose it.
The order is inverted, and this is where the rebate is usually lost
Most council CCTV rebates across Perth are claimed after the fact. You buy the system, keep the invoice, and apply with your receipts. This program runs the other way. You apply for pre approval first, wait for the outcome, and only then proceed with the installation.
Install before you have pre approval and you have spent the money outside the program. No documentation afterwards fixes that, because the approval is what allocates funding to your job.
The clock then runs in two stages. You have 60 days from the pre approval email to install and pay, and 14 days after installation to submit the service completion form. Both are firm.
Who can apply
- Fewer than 20 employees.
- An active ABN and registered for GST.
- A retail or customer facing business.
- Tenants need a written consent letter from the landlord or managing agent, submitted with the application rather than promised later.
Quotes must be dated after 6 October 2026. A quote obtained before that date will not be accepted, however recent it feels, so anything sitting in your inbox from September needs to be reissued.
Wireless systems are excluded, and the reason is worth understanding
The program is built around hard wired CCTV, which rules out the plug in wireless cameras many small businesses start with. The reasoning is evidentiary rather than arbitrary.
Wireless cameras drop out. When they do, the gap appears in the recording rather than in the live view, so nobody notices until footage is needed and the relevant minutes are missing. A scheme whose purpose is preserving usable evidence cannot rely on that. A hard wired camera system carries power and data on the one cable, which removes the failure mode.
The technical requirements, in plain terms
These are specific, and a cheap package can satisfy a shopping list while failing the standard. The system needs to meet all of the following.
- Hard wired cameras, with at least one covering the customer entrance and one covering the point of sale.
- A minimum of 5MP on every camera, not just the main one.
- A recorder with at least a 3TB drive.
- Infrared or low light capability.
- Time and date stamping on all footage.
- USB export in a standard format.
The 3TB figure is worth pausing on, because drive size is not really about storage. It is about how many days of footage you keep before the recorder writes over the oldest material, and that number has to outlast the gap between an incident and someone going looking for it. We explain how to think about that in our guide to how much CCTV storage you need.
Camera placement carries the same weight as the specification. The useful shot at an entrance is at head height on the path somebody has to walk, not a wide overview from the back corner. Cameras mounted too high, set too wide, or pointed into a glass shopfront will produce footage that technically exists and identifies nobody.
It has to be installed by a licensed security installer
Western Australia licenses security installation work, WA Police publish a list of current licence holders, and this program requires a licensed installer. A quote from an unlicensed trade, or a system fitted by a capable staff member, will not qualify whatever the equipment is. The licence details need to appear on the quote you submit and on the documentation afterwards.
The paperwork, which is stricter than most schemes
Applications run through the SmartyGrants portal, and supporting documents must be unredacted PDFs. That includes a bank statement. Businesses used to blacking out figures before sending anything to a government body should know that doing so here will stall the application.
The practical move is to register for the portal account now and upload your documentation before 19 October, so that on the day you are completing a form rather than hunting for files.
What you are agreeing to by taking it
- Registering the system with Cam-Map WA, the WA Police register of CCTV locations. It records that cameras exist at your address so investigators can approach you quickly. It is not a live feed and gives nobody access to your recordings.
- Making footage available to WA Police on request.
- Possible audit of the installation afterwards.
- Handling the recorded footage responsibly, which for a business is a legal obligation rather than good manners.
Metro businesses should move early
Three quarters of the pool is reserved for metropolitan applicants, which sounds generous until you consider how many metropolitan businesses that share is spread across. The Corporation has been explicit that not every application will succeed.
Programs structured this way close when the money runs out rather than on a tidy date. A business holding a compliant quote on the morning of 19 October is in a materially different position to one that starts looking that week.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use this and a council rebate for the same system?
They are separate programs run by separate bodies, and the terms differ between them. Read the terms of each scheme carefully and tell each one what you have applied for. The fastest way to lose both is to be found to have claimed the same cost twice.
We already have cameras. Can we claim an upgrade?
The program covers new and upgraded installations, so an upgrade is contemplated. What is not covered is work already carried out, because pre approval has to come first. If your current system is wireless, below 5MP or recording to an undersized drive, the upgrade path is likely the relevant one, and it needs quoting before you apply.
What counts as a valid quote?
A written quote dated after 6 October 2026, from a licensed security business, describing the system in enough detail for an assessor to confirm it meets the requirements. Camera count, resolution, recorder and drive capacity, and the installer’s licence details all need to be visible. A figure in a text message is not a quote.
Will police be able to watch our cameras?
No. Registering with Cam-Map WA records the existence and location of a system, not its contents. There is no live feed and no remote access. What you are agreeing to is being contactable, and providing relevant footage when it is requested as part of an investigation.
You need a compliant quote dated after 6 October, so start there
This program asks for the quote at application stage, which puts the installer conversation before the paperwork. We can walk your premises, design a hard wired system that meets every one of the technical requirements, and issue a dated written quote with our licence details on it, ready to attach. VG Techs holds Security Licence No. 71264, WA Security Provider 7126 and Master Cabler A045514.
If you run a retail or customer facing business between Rockingham and Joondalup, book the site visit this week rather than the week applications open. Call 0472 652 026, email admin@vgtechs.com.au, or request a quote. Based in Piara Waters, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Source: Small Business Development Corporation, Small Business Resilience Program CCTV Rebate, delivered in partnership with Crime Stoppers Western Australia. Security licensing context from WA Police Licensing Services. Program terms, funding and dates are subject to change, so confirm current details on the SBDC program page before applying.