Licences rarely move automatically.
Where a business depends on a licence, the licence is part of what the buyer is really paying for, and it rarely moves automatically. Depending on the licence, it is either transferred to the buyer or has to be reissued to them, and the sale contract should provide for whichever applies, usually as a condition with the buyer's right to terminate if a necessary licence does not come through.
Liquor, food and the tax angle.
A liquor licence is transferred or varied through Liquor Control Victoria under the Liquor Control Reform Act 1998, using its licensing portal, and a new licence follows a different process again. A food safety licence usually needs a specific contract condition to deal with its transfer. Other industry licences and permits each have their own regulator and steps, and because they take time and sit outside the parties' control, they are built into the contract rather than assumed. There is a tax dimension too: a licence does not itself carry goodwill, so where a licence has a separate market value, for example certain gaming or industry licences, the contract apportions a value to it as its own asset rather than as goodwill, and that value can be taxable on disposal.
The GST link.
The licence question also feeds the GST position. If a licence the business needs cannot be supplied to the buyer, it can undermine a claim that the sale is the supply of a going concern, because the buyer may not be getting everything necessary to keep operating. We deal with licence transfers as conditions of the sale through our business sale and purchase service.
A licence that must be reissued rather than transferred is outside your control and can hold up settlement or threaten the going concern treatment. Build it into the contract as a condition, with time to get it done.
Law referenced: Liquor Control Reform Act 1998.