Is a government tender worth bidding on?

You have the documents open. Now what?

Our guides to registering for government tenders and winning council work cover where tenders are advertised, the quote and tender thresholds and the first quick test of whether you meet the conditions. This guide picks up at the next step, when a tender pack is sitting in your inbox and you need to decide whether it deserves a week of your time.

Four parts of the pack decide the question, so read them first.

Mandatory requirements

These are pass or fail. They usually cover licences, insurance, minimum experience, accreditations and sometimes a site inspection or briefing you have to attend. Mark anything you can't meet today, and if one can't be fixed before the closing date, stop there, because good writing never gets a response past a missed mandatory.

Evaluation criteria and weightings

The criteria tell you what will be scored, and the weightings tell you what the buyer actually cares about. A made-up example for a two-year cleaning contract might look like this.

Read that as 60% of the score going to things other than price. A small operator with strong similar jobs, a clear plan for who turns up and when, and staff who live nearby can beat a cheaper bid. Flip it to 80% price on a simple job and the cheapest compliant bidder will usually win, so ask yourself honestly whether that will be you. If the weightings aren't given, ask for them through the official question channel.

Insurance levels

Check every amount against your current certificates of currency. If they ask for $20 million public liability and you hold $10 million, ring your broker for the price of the extra cover before you decide, and count it as a cost of the contract. It is also fair to ask whether a lower level is acceptable for the actual scope. NSW's SME and Regional Procurement Policy tells agencies to minimise tender and contract requirements such as insurance levels wherever possible, and Queensland's procurement policy suggests agencies ask for evidence of insurance only at the point they need it. Our guide to the insurance and licences business clients ask for covers the cover itself.

Contract term

"Two years with two one-year options" means you may be held to your price for four years. Look for a price review clause and what it is tied to, because without one your wages and fuel go up while your rate stays put. Check whether any volume is guaranteed, how much notice the buyer needs to end the contract, and what you would have to buy or hire before day one.

Count the real time cost

A response takes longer than the writing. There is reading the pack, going to the briefing, sending questions and reading the answers, visiting the sites, working up the price, writing to each criterion, collecting certificates and referees, checking it all and uploading it before the portal closes. Add up the hours honestly and value your own at what you would earn on a normal working day.

Then weigh that against what the contract is likely to be worth to you. Here is a made-up example. A commercial cleaner in Townsville is looking at a two-year contract to clean three depots, which would leave about $24,000 of margin after wages and supplies. The response will take the owner around 30 hours, worth roughly $2,700 of their time. If they expect five serious bidders and have a real edge on experience, a one in five chance makes the bid worth about $4,800 to them, so it's worth doing. A one-off job with $3,000 of margin and the same odds is worth $600, and the same 30 hours would be better spent quoting for regular customers.

Two things shift that sum. The first response is the hardest, because the capability statement, safety documents and case studies you write for it can be reused next time, and our capability statement template is a start. The other is timing, because a week spent on a tender in your busiest month costs you work you already had.

Panels and standing offers versus one-off contracts

A one-off contract is simple to judge. If you win it you have the work, and if you lose you have nothing but the debrief.

A panel or standing offer is different. NSW's Procurement Policy Framework describes a standing offer as an arrangement setting the terms and the basis for pricing under which a supplier agrees to supply eligible buyers for a set period, and a panel as the same arrangement held with several suppliers. Winning a place puts you in line to be asked, but it doesn't usually guarantee any work. The framework also says these are closed arrangements, and generally no new suppliers are added during the contract period. Prequalification schemes work the other way, because new suppliers can register at any time or at least periodically.

In Queensland the stakes are similar. Under the Queensland Procurement Policy 2026, if a common-use supply arrangement covers what an agency needs, the agency must use it unless an exemption applies, such as a regional or remote delivery area with no capable and competitive local supplier on the arrangement. So missing a panel in your category can shut you out of that agency's work for the life of the arrangement, and a long panel response is often worth more effort than a one-off job of the same size. Before you bid for one, ask the contact officer how many suppliers will be appointed and how work will be shared between them.

What Queensland and NSW policies do for small suppliers

Both policies apply to state government agencies and not to councils, which buy under their own state's local government law and their own procurement policies.

Queensland: QPP 2026

The Queensland Procurement Policy 2026 (version 1.1) started on 1 January 2026 and replaced the 2023 policy. It treats a business with fewer than 20 employees as a small business and one with fewer than 200 as a small and medium enterprise, and the government's target is to source at least 30% of procurement by value from Queensland SMEs. The rules that matter most when you decide whether to bid are these.

• Routine procurement. For low value, low risk buying, agencies must invite at least one local supplier, small and family business or Queensland regional business to respond, or record why that wasn't practical (rule 19).
• Significant procurement. Above the agency's threshold, which can't be lower than $500,000 including GST, the evaluation must include a purposeful public procurement criterion worth 10 to 20% of the total, made up of two to four outcomes at 5 to 10% each (rule 20). The outcomes include local benefits, regional and community benefits, more spend with small and family businesses, and apprentices and trainees.
• What counts as local. A local supplier is a Queensland supplier that maintains a local workforce, meaning people who live within 250 km of its permanent place of business and work on the job.
• Cash flow. Agencies should consider up-front payments of up to 30% for small and family businesses and medium enterprises where appropriate (rule 25).

When that criterion is in the pack, answer it with facts the evaluator can check, like where your staff live, which local suppliers you buy from and how many apprentices you employ.

NSW: the SME and Regional Procurement Policy

NSW's SME and Regional Procurement Policy (the version for procurements starting from 1 July 2021) sits inside the Procurement Policy Framework, which was last updated in August 2026. For goods and services contracts of $3 million or more, agencies must include a non-price criterion of at least 10% for SME participation and require suppliers to submit an SME and local participation plan, then report on it quarterly. Most contracts that size go to bigger firms, and the plan gives them a reason to bring in small subcontractors, so our guide to getting on a subcontractor list covers that side. On contracts of $7.5 million or more, a large head contractor must pay its small business subcontractors within 20 business days.

For tenders of any size, agencies must limit the length of responses wherever feasible. The rules on direct negotiation with SMEs up to $250,000 are in the registration guide.

Ask for a debrief when you lose

A debrief costs you one email, and in both states the rules back you up. In NSW, agencies must give pre and post tender briefings when SMEs and regional suppliers reasonably ask for them. In Queensland, QPP 2026 requires agencies to document their evaluation decisions in a way that allows quality supplier debriefs. Councils aren't bound by either policy, but ask anyway.

Email the contact officer within a few days of the result and ask four things. How did you score on each criterion, and how did that compare with the winner? Where was your evidence thin? Was your price in the range they expected? What would have made the response stronger? Listen rather than argue, because the decision won't change and the same person may run the next one.

When to walk away

Some tenders are a clear no, and the earlier you see it the cheaper it is.

• A mandatory requirement you can't meet by the closing date.
• A heavy price weighting on a simple job when you know you won't be the cheapest.
• Extra insurance, accreditation or equipment that would cost more than the contract is likely to earn.
• Staff you would need to hire before you could start, with no time to find them.
• A response due in your busiest weeks, when the hours would come out of paying customers.

Saying no to one tender isn't saying no to government work. Watch for the next panel round, keep your documents current and put the time into buyers who don't need a tender at all, like the facilities managers who look after buildings near you. Curlew writes to businesses like those in your name if you'd rather spend the week on the work.