The Queensland Procurement Policy in plain words: what it changes for a supplier
The Queensland Procurement Policy is the rulebook every Queensland Government agency buys under, and since the start of this year it has been rewritten around one idea: more of the state's spend, which the policy puts at roughly thirty-five billion dollars a year, should go to Queensland businesses, small and family businesses and regional suppliers. For a supplier the policy is worth an hour: it says when an agency must invite a local business, how local and social benefits are scored, when small work can skip a tender altogether, and that agencies must publish what they plan to buy years ahead.
← All guides · Published 12 September 2026 · Written by Helm. Helm is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by any portal named here.
What the policy is trying to do
Part one of the policy sets targets; part two sets rules agencies must follow. The targets that matter to a supplier: at least thirty per cent of procurement by value from Queensland small and medium enterprises, at least three per cent from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses, more regional suppliers contracted each year, and more Queensland SMEs engaged as subcontractors on large projects. A Queensland supplier, in the policy's own definition, is a business with an ABN whose main business address is in Queensland; a local supplier is a Queensland supplier that maintains a local workforce, and outside south-east Queensland an agency may define local by a radius from where the work is delivered.
None of this guarantees any business a contract. What it does is tell you which facts about your business a Queensland buyer is required to care about, so you state them plainly instead of hoping the evaluator notices.
The rules a supplier should know by number
The policy numbers its rules. These are the ones that touch a bid:
- Rule 19: for routine procurement (low value, low risk, as the agency classifies it) the agency must invite at least one local supplier, small and family business or Queensland regional business to respond, or document why it could not. Being findable as a local supplier is therefore worth real invitations.
- Rule 20: for significant procurement the agency must apply a purposeful public procurement criterion worth between ten and twenty per cent of the total evaluation, built from two to four outcomes such as local benefits, local manufacturing, regional and community benefits, spend with SMEs, spend with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses, social enterprises, female-owned businesses, environmental outcomes, apprentices and trainees, inclusive employment and veterans. The full list is in the policy; the guide on answering that criterion walks through it.
- Rule 5: an agency may skip a competitive process below fifty thousand dollars including GST, below five hundred thousand dollars through a common-use supply arrangement that includes pricing, and below five hundred thousand dollars (eight and a half million for construction) when a diverse supplier can meet the need. This is why so much small work never appears on a portal.
- Rule 7: agencies must publish potential future procurement to the Forward Procurement Pipeline, up to ten years ahead where the information exists.
- Rule 9: every invitation requires you to warrant adherence to the Supplier Code of Conduct, and a breach of the code is a breach of the contract.
- Rule 13: agencies should ask for evidence such as insurances, certifications and reference reports only when it is needed, for example at shortlist, rather than up front. Keep the documents ready anyway; the ask comes with a short deadline.
- Rule 16: invitation documents should not require a conforming offer before an alternative or innovative offer can be considered. If you have a better way to deliver the outcome, you may offer it.
- Rule 25: agencies should consider up-front contract payments of up to thirty per cent for small and family businesses and medium enterprises. Ask.
- Rule 27: where you were invited to offer, the agency must offer feedback to every supplier that responded. Take it every time.
- Rule 28: awarded contracts of ten thousand dollars and above are published with the supplier's name and the value; from five hundred thousand the procurement method is published too, and the largest contracts carry the evaluation criteria and weightings.
What this means for how you bid
State the facts the policy rewards, with evidence: where your workforce lives, which Queensland suppliers are in your supply chain, whether you are a small and family business, a regional business, Indigenous-owned or a social enterprise, what you make in Queensland, how many apprentices you employ. Vague claims of being local are not scored; a depot address, a headcount by town and a list of local subcontractors are.
Keep the code of conduct artefacts on file (the code guide lists them), because rule 13 means the request arrives late and fast. And read the Forward Procurement Pipeline for your category, because rule 7 means the work is announced before it is tendered.
The policy is version 1.1 as this guide is written and it will move. Check the current version on the Queensland Government's procurement pages before relying on a figure.
How Helm fits
On every Queensland Government tender inside Helm, a policy panel states the rule 20 weighting, the SME target and the invite-a-local rule, each line cited to the policy and dated to when Helm last checked it, so the bid team sees the marking frame beside the tender. The evidence library suggests the code of conduct artefacts and tracks their review dates. When Tender Mate drafts a local-benefits or social-outcomes section, it shows the policy's outcome list as authoring guidance and draws only on the facts in your profile. Helm never asserts that a particular tender is significant procurement; that is the buyer's classification.