The WELS scheme regulates the supply of new plumbing fittings (taps, showers, flow controllers, toilets, urinals) and white goods (dishwashers, clothes washers, combination washer-dryers).
Supply includes advertising, displaying in stores and online, selling, gifting, re supplying, exchanging and supplying as part of another thing (for example, new residential buildings).
What you must do:
- register all WELS regulated products. Check products that must be registered
- make sure that registered products meet the applicable water efficiency and performance standards. Check testing requirements for registration page
- label and display registered products correctly
- make sure that product registrations are current at the time of supply by checking registration status.
If your WELS products do not meet these requirements, you may face penalties.
Training
WELS scheme online course
This free 45 minute course is designed help you understand the WELS scheme and how it is helping Australians save water and money.
It was created for plumbers, builders, building designers, developers and others who have a legal obligation under the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Act 2005.
It is also open to anyone who wants to learn about the scheme and water efficiency.
How we regulate
We publish information, conduct presentations and answer enquiries to help you understand your regulatory obligations.
Our activities are targeted and our response is proportionate. We choose our response based on risk factors, such as the behaviour and type of non-compliance. We monitor and support compliant behaviour and respond to suspected or actual non-compliance.
What happens if you do not comply
Our approach to compliance is to work collaboratively and in partnership with industry, states and territories, other government departments and international partners to achieve regulatory outcomes.
Where we find non-compliance, we respond proportionately to the potential harm posed by the non-compliance and in a way that allows for procedural fairness and natural justice.
We acknowledge that most regulated people and businesses accept the obligations imposed on them by legislation and usually comply voluntarily.
We will work with you to provide support to ensure that you understand your obligations and to support your ongoing compliance.
If the non-compliance cannot be resolved cooperatively, the WELS Regulator has a range of options to escalate the response, including the use of civil and enforcement provisions, if necessary.
Our Compliance policy provides further information about our approach and about the administrative and enforcement actions that are available to the WELS Regulator, should they be appropriate and required.
Enforcement options include issuing infringement notices, compliance audit notices, remedial action notices, enforceable undertakings and injunctions. We may commence civil and criminal proceedings for some matters. The infringement notice statement page has information on when an infringement notice may be given.
Find out more under penalties.
The WELS Compliance policy can be found in the download section here.
Download
WELS Compliance policy (PDF 737 KB)
WELS Compliance policy (DOCX 681 KB)
If you are having difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.
2025–26 compliance priorities
To ensure the regulatory integrity of the scheme, the WELS Regulator is focussing compliance effort across 4 main areas. These are:
- supply of unregistered WELS products
- potential fraud
- non-compliant labelling and text advice on WELS products when offered for sale
- inaccurate or incorrect documentation and information in product registration applications and registration renewal applications.
The activities include:
- responding to allegations
- conducting monitoring inspections of retail outlets
- monitoring online advertising of WELS products
- working with co-regulators and e-commerce administrators to enhance detection capabilities and responses of online marketplaces
- conducting documentary inspections of building developments
- monitoring regulated products offered for supply that claim to be WELS registered
- improving our intelligence analytics capability
- monitoring for fraudulent documentation through product registration assessments
- assessing and validating documents and information provided in product registration applications
- random auditing of documents and information for product registration renewal applications, and
- providing education to suppliers, plumbers, retailers and registrants.
Download
Compliance priorities 2025–26 (PDF 356 KB)
Compliance priorities 2025–26 (DOCX 245 KB)
If you are having difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.