How to Win Your First Australian Government Contract

Selling to the Australian Government looks impenetrable from the outside, but the path to a first win is more predictable than most people expect. Here is the sequence that actually works.

1. Get the basics in place

You need an active ABN, GST registration if your turnover requires it, and a free AusTender account with notification categories set up. None of this costs money and you should never pay a third party for it. Set aside an afternoon.

Be clear about what AusTender registration is. It is a publication and lodgement system, not a prequalification scheme. Registering means you see the work. It does not make you approved for anything.

2. Define your lane in UNSPSC

Everything the Commonwealth publishes is tagged with a UNSPSC category code, so your choice of codes decides what reaches you. Pick codes agencies actually buy under: some carry thousands of contracts a year and some carry none. Check the contract counts before you register against a code.

3. Read contract notices before you read tenders

Every Commonwealth contract of $10,000 including GST or more is published on AusTender with the buyer, the supplier, the value and the contract end date. That is a free, complete map of your market: who wins, what agencies pay, and when work comes up again.

Most new suppliers skip this and start by responding to tenders. That is backwards. An afternoon in contract notice data will tell you more about where you can win than a month of writing responses.

4. Get onto the panels that matter

A large share of Commonwealth spend is competed among suppliers already on a standing offer panel rather than advertised openly. If you are not on the panel, you cannot respond, no matter how good you are. Panels refresh periodically and a refresh may be your only opportunity for years, so watch for refresh notices in your categories.

5. Use Exemption 17

Exemption 17 of Appendix A to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules lets an agency engage a small or medium enterprise directly, with no open approach to market, for procurements up to $500,000 including GST, where value for money can be demonstrated. An SME here is an Australian or New Zealand business with fewer than 200 full time equivalent staff.

For a small supplier this changes where effort belongs. Being known and credible to a specific buyer before they have a requirement can be worth more than responding to more open tenders.

6. Qualify ruthlessly, then write to the criteria

Read the conditions for participation before you decide to bid. They are pass or fail, and a response that misses one is excluded before anyone reads your answers. Then write to the published evaluation criteria, with evidence rather than assertion, and lodge well before the closing time.

• Check every condition for participation first, including insurances and accreditations
• Answer the criterion that was asked, in the section it was asked in
• Give evidence: named projects, numbers, referees
• Stay inside the page or word limit for each criterion
• Lodge hours early, not minutes early