Tenders ACT and the Secure Local Jobs Code: The Civil Contractor’s Guide to ACT Government Work

Most guides to a jurisdiction start with the portal. For the Australian Capital Territory that is the wrong place to start, because the portal is not what stops contractors from bidding. Two other things do, and both of them operate before a tender is even opened.

The two gates that decide whether you can bid at all

The first gate is the Secure Local Jobs Code. If you perform construction, cleaning, security or traffic management work, you must hold a current Secure Local Jobs Code Certificate to tender for ACT Government work.^[2] Not to win it. To tender for it. The certificate is issued by a Registrar on the strength of an audit conducted by an independent approved auditor you engage and pay for.^[12] That process is not something you start when a tender drops.

The second gate is prequalification. The ACT requires prequalification to be eligible to tender for design and construction procurements above $250,000.^[22] Panel and tender notices published on Tenders ACT routinely state that tenderers may generally only participate if they are prequalified in the required category, at or above the required financial threshold, prior to tender closing.^[27]

Neither gate is unusual in isolation. What makes the ACT distinctive is the Code. No other Australian state or territory requires a construction contractor to obtain an independently audited workplace-relations certificate as a precondition of lodging a response. Interstate contractors accustomed to submitting a bid and dealing with compliance at award are frequently caught by it, and there is no retrospective fix.

The rest of this guide works through both gates, the procurement framework around them, and the practical sequence a civil SME should follow. If you are new to government work generally rather than to the ACT specifically, start with our guide to winning your first government contract and come back here.

Who actually buys civil work in the ACT

The ACT is a single jurisdiction performing both state and local government functions. There are no councils. Everything a council would do elsewhere — roads, footpaths, stormwater, parks, shopping centre upgrades, street lighting — is done by a Territory directorate. For a civil SME that is genuinely useful, because it collapses what would be a dozen procurement relationships in a comparable NSW region into one framework.

Three buyers matter most.

• Infrastructure Canberra (iCBR) is the Territory’s expert agency for capital infrastructure, responsible for the development, procurement, delivery, management, leasing and maintenance of capital infrastructure and property. It also coordinates the ACT Infrastructure Plan and the Infrastructure Pipeline, and it administers prequalification.^[9] iCBR absorbed the functions previously reported under Major Projects Canberra, which was discontinued as a separate output class in the 2025–26 Budget — if you are reading older tender documents or guidance, expect both names to appear.^[6]
• Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS) manages the recurring suburban civil program — the roads, paths, drainage and public realm work that most closely resembles a council renewal program. This is where the bulk of accessible SME work sits.
• Individual directorates procure works associated with their own assets — health, education, community facilities — generally through the same framework and the same prequalification requirements.

Icon Water sits outside this structure as the Territory’s water and sewerage utility, with its own supplements to the national WSAA codes. If your scope is pressure mains or reticulation, our water and sewer tenders guide covers how asset-owner accreditation works and why it is a separate hurdle from procurement.

The 2026–27 Budget reset: a capital program pointed downwards

This is the part most jurisdiction guides skip, and it is the part that should shape whether you invest in ACT registration at all.

The 2025–26 ACT Budget forecast an Infrastructure Investment Program of $1.8 billion in 2025–26 and $8.3 billion over the five years to 2029–30, comprising $6.0 billion in the General Government Sector and $2.3 billion by Public Trading Enterprises.^[6] The 2026–27 Budget changed that trajectory. To support fiscal sustainability, the Government reset the Infrastructure Investment Program to a baseline of less than $1 billion per year across the forward estimates, alongside a restructure of the public sector workforce and limits on agency expenditure growth. The headline net operating balance is forecast at a deficit of $323.4 million in 2026–27, reaching balance in 2027–28, with a target of holding net debt below 19 per cent of Gross State Product.^[7]

Read plainly: the ACT has roughly halved its forward capital baseline and deferred work to get there. That is not a reason to ignore the market, but it is a reason to be honest about what the market is. The accessible layer is not the light rail extension or the Northside Hospital. It is the recurring suburban program, and the 2026–27 Budget funded a recognisable slice of it — shopping centre upgrades at Kingston, Chisholm, Cooleman Court and Kippax involving seating, lighting, crossings, paving and landscaping; a new active travel path between Hall and Gold Creek; new stormwater infrastructure for Hall Village; and detailed design for the next stage of the Belconnen to City Transitway.^[8]

Every one of those is a civil SME package. None of them is a headline project. The strategic read for a contractor in the $50K–$2M band is that a shrinking headline program does not necessarily shrink the accessible layer, because renewal and amenity work is comparatively resilient to capital deferral. We made the same argument about a declining market in our analysis of Victoria’s infrastructure downslope, and the logic transfers.

The Infrastructure Pipeline published by iCBR is the tool for testing this yourself. It sets out timing and indicative costs of future works, and the Territory is explicit that inclusion is a proposal for consideration rather than a funding commitment.^[9] Treat it as directional, not bankable.

Tenders ACT: registration and how work reaches you

Tenders ACT is the Territory’s procurement portal. All public tenders are advertised there.^[1] Registration is free, gives you access to opportunity alerts, and is the mechanism through which addenda and clarifications are distributed during a live procurement. The Territory publishes short online courses on using and navigating the platform, which are worth the half hour if you have never lodged through it.^[5]

Two operational points are worth internalising before your first lodgement.

First, the advertising periods are defined. An invitation to tender must be advertised electronically for at least 25 days, reducible to 10 days where notice of the procurement has been electronically published for at least 40 days and not more than 12 months before the first day of advertisement, or where exceptional circumstances make a 25-day period impracticable.^[1] The 10-day pathway is the one to plan for: it means a procurement you saw flagged on the forward opportunities list can convert into a live tender with a fortnight’s runway.

Second, late tenders are not permitted for open tenders unless the tender was submitted late due to an act or omission by the Territory entity.^[1] That is a harder rule than several other jurisdictions apply, and it removes the discretionary latitude some contractors assume exists. Lodge early.

The thresholds — and why $1 million is the number that matters

The Government Procurement Regulation 2007 sets the dollar values at which quotations and tenders must be sought, and the minimum number of quotations required at each level.^[2] The current settings took effect on 1 July 2024 as part of the Territory’s Procurement Reform Program.^[1]

Estimated value (incl GST)	Construction-related goods or services	Non-construction goods or services
Less than $25,000	Minimum one written quotation
$25,000 and above	Minimum three written quotations up to $1 million	Minimum three written quotations up to $500,000
Open tender required	$1 million and above	$500,000 and above

Note the split. The Territory applies a higher open-tender threshold to construction-related procurement than to everything else, and $1 million is a high line by Australian standards. For a civil SME targeting the $50K–$2M band, the practical consequence is stark: most of your addressable ACT market never appears as a public tender. It is procured as a three-quotation exercise, by invitation, from suppliers the buyer already knows or can find.

Contractors who treat Tenders ACT as their entire ACT strategy are therefore watching the wrong channel for the majority of the work they could actually win. The portal matters for the $1 million-plus packages and for panel refreshes. Below that line, being findable, prequalified and Code-certified is what puts you on the invitation list. This is the same structural point our first government contract guide makes nationally, and the ACT is close to the purest expression of it.

What changed on 1 July 2026

The Government Procurement Amendment Act 2026 commenced on 1 July 2026. It originated as the Government Procurement Amendment Bill 2025, was presented to the Legislative Assembly on 29 October 2025, and was notified on 16 February 2026 with commencement fixed by the Minister.^[4] It refines rather than rebuilds the framework established by the 2024 reforms, and three of its changes matter to a civil contractor.^[3]

A direct-approach pathway. Previously, limited tender procurements above $25,000 required at least three written quotations unless an exemption applied. Territory entities may now obtain a single written quotation — a direct approach — within the limited tender bands, which for construction-related work means the $25,000 to $1 million range.^[3] The eligible categories build on the exemption grounds already in the framework: certified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities, entities based in the ACT and surrounding region, and small to medium businesses.^[1]

If you are a Canberra-region civil SME, that is the single most consequential sentence in the ACT procurement framework. A buyer who knows your capability can now engage you on one quotation for a package worth up to a million dollars. The corollary is that the entire competitive contest has moved upstream, into whether the buyer knows you exist and believes you can deliver. That is a capability statement and relationship problem, not a tender writing problem — see our capability statement guide and the worked example.

A redefined region. The Amendment Act updated the definition of an entity based in the ACT or surrounding region to reflect the relevant local government areas as currently constituted under New South Wales law.^[3] This is administratively minor and commercially significant. Civil contractors based across the border in the Queanbeyan, Yass, Goulburn and Monaro districts should check the current Regulation definition against their registered business address, because eligibility for the local pathway may turn on it. Do not assume; the Regulation is the operative text.

Low-value simplification. Written procurement contracts are no longer required for procurements valued under $500, with a single oral quotation sufficient, although a written quotation and contract may still be requested.^[3] Irrelevant to a civil contractor’s core work, but it signals the direction of travel: the Territory is deliberately reducing friction at the bottom of the market.

The Amendment Act also clarified which procurements must be reviewed by the Government Procurement Board, while keeping the Board’s focus on higher scale, scope and risk.^[3]

The Secure Local Jobs Code: what it is and who needs a certificate

The Secure Local Jobs Package was introduced by the Government Procurement (Secure Local Jobs) Amendment Act 2018, with the operative instrument now the Secure Local Jobs Code made in 2020.^[13][14] The Code sets workplace standards that a business must meet to be engaged on Territory-funded work in four industries: construction, cleaning, security and traffic management.^[2][11] The Territory maintains a dedicated Secure Local Jobs Code site carrying the application form, the list of approved auditors and the supporting resources.^[11]

A Code Certificate is not a one-off compliance event tied to award. A contractor must hold a current certificate at three separate points:

• when submitting a response to a request for quotation, request for proposal, work order or tender for Territory-funded work;
• when entering into the contract, agreement or other arrangement; and
• for the duration of the contract.

The first of those is the one that catches people. It applies to a request for quotation, which — given the $1 million construction threshold discussed above — is how most SME-scale ACT work is actually procured. A contractor without a certificate is not merely disadvantaged in the ACT market. They are outside it.

Two further points. Subcontractors frequently need to comply with the same requirements as head contractors, including Code certification and construction prequalification — the Territory says so explicitly in its guidance on partnering and subcontracting.^[10] If your ACT entry strategy is to subcontract to a larger firm, certification is still likely to be on your critical path. And the legislation provides for exemptions: a responsible chief executive officer may exempt an entity from the certificate requirements for a particular procurement proposal or procurement under section 22H of the Act.^[14] Exemptions are administered tightly. The Code’s Advisory Council minutes record periods in which no exemptions were granted at all.^[20] Do not build a bid strategy on obtaining one.

Getting a Code Certificate: auditors, timing and validity

The process runs through a private approved auditor, not through a government form. The Territory’s published sequence is:^[12]

1. Read the Code and understand your obligations under Parts 2 and 3.
2. Review and update your workplace systems and policies so they actually meet those requirements.
3. Engage an approved auditor — independent of the ACT Government — to assess your compliance.
4. Gather documentation for the auditor, including the Code Certificate application, business or instalment activity statements, and evidence of superannuation payments, among other items.
5. Complete the online application and submit it to your auditor.
6. The auditor prepares an audit report on your compliance and submits it to the Registrar, with a copy to you.
7. The Registrar determines whether your business meets the Code and may issue a certificate.

On timing, the Territory states that the Registrar will issue a Code Certificate within five business days of receiving a complete and compliant application, and separately that it generally takes two to five business days from submission of the completed audit report for the Registrar to consider the application.^[12][15] Those are the fast parts. The variable is the audit itself, which depends on your business size and structure, your preparation, and your auditor’s availability.^[12]

The practical planning assumption is therefore not “five business days”. It is: however long it takes you to bring your policies, procedures and payment records to a standard an independent auditor will sign, plus the auditor’s lead time, plus a week. Businesses with mature systems move quickly. Businesses whose induction, safety and workplace policies exist as informal practice rather than documented procedure do not. If you hold certified management systems already, much of the evidence burden is discharged — our guide to the ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 trifecta covers what certification involves and what it costs.

Three further mechanics matter.

• You pay the auditor. The Code deals expressly with the costs of the approved auditor, and those costs sit with the applicant.^[13] Budget for it as a cost of market entry, and get more than one quote — auditors are listed publicly by the Territory.
• Certificates run for up to 30 months, with the actual period depending on your business’s history of compliance.^[12] A shorter certificate is a signal, and renewal timing should be diarised against your bid pipeline, not left to expiry.
• Certification is revocable. The Code Certified Entities register is public, and the Registrar cancels certificates.^[21] Advisory Council minutes record two entities having certifications cancelled on 11 March 2026, following which certification was not granted to two associated entities.^[20] The associated-entity point is worth noting for contractors operating multiple companies: compliance history does not stay neatly inside one ACN.

Governance of the scheme has also firmed up. Recent amendments to the Government Procurement Act legislate the Chair role of the Secure Local Jobs Code Advisory Council to be the Code Registrar.^[20] The Council includes business and union representatives.^[18]

Labour Relations, Training and Workplace Equity Plans

The Code Certificate establishes that your business meets the standard. The Labour Relations, Training and Workplace Equity Plan — LRTWE Plan — is the project-level document showing how you will apply it on this contract.

The thresholds differ by industry, and the construction threshold has moved. From 1 March 2022, businesses bidding for cleaning, security or traffic management work worth more than $25,000 need an LRTWE Plan, while the threshold for construction work was raised from $25,000 to $200,000 to reduce the administrative burden.^[16]

Read that carefully if you do traffic management. A civil contractor self-performing traffic control on its own works is in a different position from a specialist traffic management subcontractor, and the $25,000 threshold for traffic management work is eight times lower than the construction threshold. If traffic management is a distinct scope you bid, plan for the lower line. Our guide to traffic management plans and traffic guidance schemes covers the wider regulatory position on who may prepare which document.

Two features of the LRTWE Plan are frequently missed. It must be developed in consultation with employees and include a statement about how that consultation was done — a plan drafted by a bid writer in isolation does not meet the requirement on its face. And the successful tenderer must operate in alignment with the plan for the duration of the project.^[16] It is a live obligation, not a submission artefact.

There is also a transparency consequence. Where a contract is notifiable, the LRTWE Plan, any local industry participation plan, and any other plan submitted in an open tender procurement with an estimated total consideration of $5 million or more form part of the contract and must be attached to the published text.^[1] Your plan becomes a public document. Write it accordingly — specific enough to be credible, and free of commitments you cannot evidence.

The Territory publishes an LRTWE compliance plan template, and Procurement ACT has been working through alignment between LRTWE reporting and local industry participation documentation.^[20] Use the current template rather than an interstate equivalent.

The Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation is a gate, not a criterion

This is the most misunderstood element of the ACT framework, and the misunderstanding is expensive.

The Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation, conducted under the Government Procurement (Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation) Direction 2023 (No 2), assesses tenderers against Fair and Safe Employment Criteria reflecting their compliance with the Secure Local Jobs Code and alignment with the Government’s Fair and Safe Conditions for Workers procurement value.^[17] It applies to procurements that require a Code Certificate, have an estimated total value of $200,000 or more, and are conducted by open tender.^[18]

Here is the structural point. The evaluation determines whether a supplier is eligible to proceed to assessment against the other procurement criteria — capability and price.^[18] It is not a weighted criterion that a strong methodology or a sharp price can offset. It runs first, and failing it means the rest of your submission is not scored.

The Direction assigns roles carefully. The Secure Local Jobs Code Branch makes recommendations; the procurement Delegate remains the ultimate decision-maker. Where a Delegate decides to include a tenderer contrary to the Branch’s recommendation, the Branch must be notified within three business days with reasons, and inclusion in one instance does not create a precedent for automatic inclusion in future.^[19] That is a meaningful nuance: an adverse recommendation is not automatically fatal, but you should not plan around discretion being exercised in your favour.

The evaluation does not apply directly to subcontractors. Instead, tenderers are responsible for undertaking due diligence on their subcontractors to ensure they meet ACT Government ethical procurement standards, and that requirement is reflected in approach-to-market documents and resulting contracts.^[19] In practice, this pushes a supply-chain verification obligation onto you. If you are naming subcontractors in an ACT bid, know their certification status before you name them.

Tenderers who have concerns about how the evaluation has been applied may lodge a complaint under the Supplier Complaints Management Procedure.^[17] That is a separate channel from a debrief, and the distinction matters — see our guide on requesting and using a tender debrief, which explains why a debrief is the wrong forum for a process complaint.

Certain procurements are carved out of the evaluation, including contracts established through a standing offer as defined by the Regulation, and procurements for which a Code exemption has been granted under section 22H.^[17]

Prequalification: two schemes and a $250,000 trigger

Prequalification is required to be eligible to tender for design and construction procurements above $250,000.^[22] The ACT runs two parallel systems and it matters which one your work falls under.

• The ACT Government Prequalification Scheme for Construction Industry Contractors — the Territory’s own scheme, administered by a Prequalification Registrar within Infrastructure Canberra, covering building contractors, consultants and a range of specialist categories. Sanctions under the Scheme include downgrading, suspension or cancellation of a contractor’s prequalification.^[23]
• The two national schemes — the Austroads National Prequalification System for Civil (Road and Bridge) Construction, and the National Prequalification System for Non-Residential Building over $50 million. The ACT has adopted both.^[24][26]

For a civil contractor, road and bridge work sits under the national system. The NPS is a harmonised framework administered locally by each state and territory road agency rather than by a central body, and companies tendering to Australian road agencies for roadworks and bridgeworks contracts must be prequalified under it.^[25] That is good news if you already hold Austroads NPS categories elsewhere, because mutual recognition is available for Full prequalification — though it is never automatic and must be applied for in each jurisdiction. Our prequalification schemes by state and territory sets out how the R, B and F categories work and where mutual recognition stops.

Two ACT-specific details are easy to trip on. Prequalification under the ACT scheme is approved for three years and then fully reviewed.^[24] And National Engineering Register registration applies to ACT prequalification but does not apply to the National Prequalification Scheme for Civil Road and Bridge — the Territory states this expressly, because contractors reasonably assume the requirements are uniform.^[24]

The timing rule is absolute in practice. Tender and panel notices state that tenderers may generally only participate in a procurement process if prequalified in the required category, at or above the required financial threshold, prior to tender closing.^[27] Applying during a tender period does not preserve your position.

Joint ventures and joint bids under the ACT scheme

The ACT publishes something most jurisdictions do not: a dedicated fact sheet setting out prequalification requirements where an approach to market permits a joint venture.^[26] It is unusually explicit, and it is worth reading even if you never bid in the ACT, because it makes visible what other agencies apply without documenting.

The headline requirements for an incorporated joint venture, as published, are that each company forming the JV must be prequalified to the required category in its own right; that where more than one category is required, each company must hold each category; that combined financial statements must equal the required financial criteria for the requested level; that public liability, workers’ compensation and professional indemnity insurances be current at stated minimums; that certified quality, safety and environmental management systems be held, with one company’s system nominated for the JV to operate under; and that the JV itself also be prequalified in its own right.^[26]

Two provisions deserve emphasis. The published requirements state that the joint venture will be in default of its contractual obligation should either company’s prequalification expire or be terminated — your partner’s compliance becomes your contractual risk.^[26] And joint bids, as distinct from joint ventures, are only applicable to projects covered by the ACT Government’s own Prequalification Scheme; for projects covered by the national civil scheme, joint bids are not acceptable.^[26]

Because the structural questions here apply well beyond the ACT — and because the most common reason SMEs consider a joint venture is the one thing a joint venture cannot do — we have treated the subject at length in a companion guide: joint ventures and consortium bidding for civil contractors.

The Canberra Region Local Industry Participation Policy

The Canberra Region Local Industry Participation Policy has applied to all approaches to market by Territory entities since 1 January 2017.^[28] Its function is to ensure competitive local businesses, including SMEs, are given the opportunity to respond to ACT Government procurement.

Two instruments sit under it. Procurements from $200,000 to $5 million attract an Economic Contribution Test. Procurements at $5 million and above require a full Local Industry Participation Plan.^[28] For a contractor in the $50K–$2M band the Economic Contribution Test is the relevant instrument, and it becomes live at exactly the point where most of your ACT bids will sit.

The Policy also operates through the supply chain. The Territory encourages the use of Canberra Region businesses as subcontractors as a means of achieving the policy intent.^[10] For an interstate contractor, that is the practical route to a credible local content response: named local subcontractors and suppliers, with the arrangements documented rather than asserted.

Compared with the strongest local-preference regimes in the country, the ACT is moderate. Tasmania weights a local-benefits test at 30 per cent of the evaluation and the Northern Territory sets a minimum 30 per cent floor for local content — see our guides to Tenders Tasmania and NT procurement. The ACT achieves a similar outcome by a different route: rather than a heavy evaluation weighting, it uses a direct-approach pathway that lets buyers engage local SMEs without going to market at all.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Procurement Policy

The ACT launched its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Procurement Policy on 31 May 2019, supporting the objectives of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019–2028.^[29]

The mechanism most relevant to a civil contractor is the exemption from quotation thresholds allowing a Territory entity to seek a quote directly from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprise for goods and services under $200,000.^[29] Certification is handled by recognised Certifying Authorities, and Procurement ACT maintains a list of Canberra Region Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enterprises; where no suitable regional enterprise exists, buyers are encouraged to search Supply Nation’s directory.^[29]

One point of intersection matters. Businesses in construction, cleaning, security or traffic management still require a Secure Local Jobs Code Certificate to be engaged on an ACT Government contract — the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pathway does not displace the Code.^[29] For a certified Indigenous civil business, Code certification and prequalification remain prerequisites, and are the practical enablers of the direct-engagement pathway rather than an obstacle to it.

If you are building a broader Indigenous participation response across jurisdictions, our guide to social and Indigenous procurement policies in NSW, VIC and QLD sets out how the larger schemes differ.

Panels, standing offers and subcontracting in

The ACT uses panels, multi-use lists and schemes for goods, services and works that are regularly acquired. Opportunities to join a new panel, or to join an existing one at a refresh, are advertised on Tenders ACT.^[10]

The Territory is refreshingly blunt about what panel membership is worth: being a member of a panel does not guarantee work.^[10] That is the correct framing, and it matches what we argue nationally in our guide to winning work off panels and standing offers — getting on is a tender, getting work off is a different discipline entirely. Panel arrangements also intersect with the framework in two specific ways: procurement under a standing-offer arrangement is an exemption ground from the quotation and tender thresholds, and contracts established through a standing offer are carved out of the Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation.^[1][17]

Recent panel activity has included work to bring civil contractors into arrangements historically dominated by project managers — the Project Management Agreement panel refresh flagged the inclusion of a civil subsection for suitable civil contractors, with potential participants encouraged to obtain the relevant civil prequalification categories in advance.^[27] That is the pattern to watch: panel refreshes are announced with prequalification lead time built in, and contractors who see the pre-tender consultation and act on it are the ones eligible when the refresh opens.

Partnering with another business, or subcontracting to a larger one, is a route the Territory explicitly endorses. The caveat, again, is that subcontractors often need to meet the same requirements as head contractors, including Code certification and construction prequalification.^[10]

The registers, and what a competitor’s contract will tell you

The ACT publishes four registers that a contractor should use deliberately rather than occasionally.^[30]

• The Contracts Register publishes notifiable contracts. Because the LRTWE Plan and any local industry participation plan form part of a notifiable contract and must be attached to the published text, the register contains worked examples of accepted plans.^[1] That is an unusually direct read on what the Territory considers adequate.
• The Notifiable Invoices Register publishes payment-level detail, which is useful for understanding actual programme spend as against announced spend.
• The Secure Local Jobs Code Certified Entities register tells you which of your competitors and prospective subcontractors are certified — and, by omission, which are not.^[21]
• The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprises register is the Territory’s own list of certified Canberra Region enterprises, and the first place to look for partners on a local participation response.^[29]

Used together, these give a contractor entering the market something rare: visibility of who holds the gate credentials, what the Territory actually pays for comparable scopes, and what an accepted workplace plan looks like in practice. Most contractors never open them.

Procurement ACT also operates a debrief process and a separate supplier and tenderer complaints channel.^[30] Use both — for the reasons set out in our debrief guide, the feedback is the only structured read you will get on how your submission scored.

A sequenced pathway into your first ACT contract

The ACT rewards sequence more than most jurisdictions, because two of its requirements cannot be compressed into a tender period. The order below reflects that.

Step	What it involves	Why it comes here
1. Fix the systems	Documented workplace policies and procedures — induction, safety, conduct — plus clean activity statements and superannuation evidence	This is what the Code auditor examines. Doing it after engaging an auditor wastes the engagement
2. Engage an approved auditor	Choose from the published list; obtain more than one quote; you bear the cost	The audit is the long pole in the schedule, not the Registrar’s decision
3. Obtain the Code Certificate	Auditor lodges the report; Registrar determines and may issue, valid up to 30 months	Without it you cannot lodge a response, including to a request for quotation
4. Prequalify	ACT scheme or Austroads NPS depending on scope; check whether NER registration applies	Required above $250,000, and must be in place prior to tender closing
5. Register on Tenders ACT	Supplier registration and opportunity alerts; complete the platform eLearn modules	Also the channel for addenda during a live procurement
6. Become findable below $1 million	Capability statement, local presence or credible local supply chain, register listings	Most construction-related work under $1 million is procured by quotation, not open tender
7. Build the LRTWE Plan template	Developed in consultation with employees, with the consultation documented	Required above $200,000 for construction; becomes public on notifiable contracts
8. Watch panel refreshes and pre-tender consultation	Monitor Tenders ACT for panel and multi-use list openings	Refreshes are flagged with prequalification lead time built in
9. Bid, then debrief	Lodge early; request a debrief whether you win or lose	Late tenders are not accepted absent a Territory act or omission

The honest assessment of the ACT for a civil SME is this. It is a small market with a capital program the Territory has deliberately reset downwards, and it imposes a compliance entry cost that no other jurisdiction does. Against that, it has no council layer to navigate, an open-tender threshold for construction that is high by national standards, and a direct-approach pathway that from 1 July 2026 lets buyers engage Canberra-region SMEs on a single written quotation for packages up to a million dollars.

For a contractor already operating in southern New South Wales, that combination is favourable and the entry cost is recoverable. For a contractor with no regional presence and no intention of building one, it probably is not. The Code is the test of seriousness the Territory has deliberately built, and it works as intended: it filters out contractors who were never going to commit to the market.

Once you are through both gates, the work of winning is the ordinary work — a compliant response, a defensible methodology, evidence rather than assertion. Our guide to how government tenders are scored and our guide to addressing selection criteria cover that ground. And when the work is won, getting paid is its own discipline; the ACT has its own security of payment legislation, and the claim calendar is not optional.

Thresholds, policies and legislative instruments referred to in this guide were current at the time of writing. Procurement frameworks change — verify the current position on the Procurement ACT and Tenders ACT websites and in the operative legislation before relying on any figure for a live bid. Nothing in this guide is legal advice.

Secure Local Jobs certification, territory prequalification and a Canberra bid are all things we do every week — see our tender writing services in Canberra and the ACT.

References

This guide is general information for Australian civil construction businesses and is not legal, industrial relations or procurement advice. Secure Local Jobs Code certification, labour relations obligations and the ACT procurement thresholds are set by the Territory and change; certification is assessed by the Registrar against your own employment arrangements. Always work from the current Code and the conditions of tendering for your specific opportunity.

1. Procurement ACT — Amendments to the Procurement Framework (amendments to the Government Procurement Act 2001 and Government Procurement Regulation 2007 effective 1 July 2024; quotation and tender threshold table; ACT Government procurement spend of $1.67 billion in 2023–24; 25-day and 10-day electronic advertising periods; late tenders not permitted for open tenders absent a Territory act or omission; exemption grounds including certified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entities, entities based in the ACT and surrounding region, small to medium businesses, and standing-offer arrangements; notifiable contract attachment requirements for LRTWE plans, local industry participation plans and other plans where estimated total consideration is $5 million or more). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
2. Procurement ACT — Legislation (Government Procurement Act 2001; Government Procurement Regulation 2007 specifying threshold levels and minimum quotation numbers, the role of the Government Procurement Board and notifiable contract publication requirements; Government Procurement Rules 2024; requirement for suppliers tendering for construction, cleaning, security or traffic management work to hold a Secure Local Jobs Code Certificate). ↩ ↩ ↩
3. Procurement ACT — Government Procurement Amendment Act 2026 (commencement 1 July 2026; move from a minimum of three written quotations to the option of one written quotation as a direct approach for limited tender procurements, being $25,000 to $500,000 for non-construction and $25,000 to $1 million for construction-related goods and services; removal of the written contract requirement for procurements under $500 with one oral quotation; clarification of Board review scope; amendment of confidential text to include an individual’s name except where supplying in their own name; updating of the “entity based in the ACT or surrounding region” definition to reflect current New South Wales local government areas; deletion of the standing-offer arrangement definition from section 4 of the Regulation). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
4. Government Procurement Amendment Act 2026 (ACT), A2026-1, ACT Legislation Register (originated in the Legislative Assembly as the Government Procurement Amendment Bill 2025; presentation speech made 29 October 2025; notified under the Legislation Act on 16 February 2026; commencement on a day fixed by the Minister by written notice; amends the Government Procurement Act 2001 and the Government Procurement Regulation 2007). ↩
5. Tenders ACT — welcome and supplier registration pages (registration for alerts and opportunities; online courses for using and navigating the platform; supplier notice of 23 June 2026 regarding changes to government buying from 1 July 2026 for SMEs, sole traders and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses). ↩
6. ACT Treasury — Budget 2025-26: Infrastructure Investment Program (forecast expenditure of $1.8 billion in 2025-26 and $8.3 billion over five years, comprising $6.0 billion General Government Sector and $2.3 billion Public Trading Enterprises); ACT Treasury — 2025-26 Budget Statements G (Major Projects Canberra – Infrastructure output class discontinued; Infrastructure Canberra consisting of a single output class in 2025-26 responsible for development, procurement, delivery, management, leasing and maintenance of capital infrastructure and property). ↩ ↩
7. Australian Capital Territory Budget 2026-27, summarised by Hawker Britton (Infrastructure Investment Program reset to a sustainable baseline of less than $1 billion per year across the forward estimates; public sector workforce restructure; limits on agency expenditure growth; headline net operating balance deficit of $323.4 million in 2026-27 improving to balance in 2027-28; net debt target below 19 per cent of Gross State Product). ↩
8. ACT Government — 2026–27 ACT Budget: investing in city services and infrastructure, Our Canberra, June 2026 (shopping centre upgrades at Kingston, Chisholm, Cooleman Court and Kippax including seating, lighting, crossings, paving and landscaping; active travel path between Hall and Gold Creek; new stormwater infrastructure for Hall Village; public toilet at Umbagong District Park; next stage of the Belconnen to City Transitway including detailed design of bus priority measures). ↩
9. Infrastructure Canberra — About, Major projects and Infrastructure pages (iCBR as the ACT Government’s expert agency for capital infrastructure; coordination of the ACT Infrastructure Plan and Pipeline; ACT Chief Engineer role held by the Director-General; Infrastructure Pipeline provided for information purposes with inclusion not constituting a funding commitment). ↩ ↩
10. Procurement ACT — Ways to supply (methods of procurement; panels, multi-use lists and schemes advertised on Tenders ACT; statement that panel membership does not guarantee work; unsolicited proposals; statement that subcontractors often need to comply with the same ACT Government requirements as primary contractors, including Secure Local Jobs Code certification and construction prequalification; encouragement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enterprises and Canberra Region businesses as subcontractors under the respective policies). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
11. Procurement ACT — Secure local jobs (purpose of the Code; industries for which a Code Certificate is required; direction to the Secure Local Jobs Code website for the application form, list of approved auditors and supporting resources). ↩ ↩
12. Procurement ACT — Apply/Renew for a Secure Local Jobs Code Certificate (requirement to engage an approved auditor independent of the ACT Government; preparatory steps including reading the Code, updating workplace systems and policies to meet Parts 2 and 3, and gathering documentation including the application, business or instalment activity statements and evidence of superannuation payments; auditor submission of the audit report to the Registrar with a copy to the business; Registrar determination and issue of a certificate valid for up to 30 months depending on compliance history; assessment duration dependent on business size and structure, preparation and auditor availability; Registrar issue within five business days of a complete and compliant application). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
13. Government Procurement (Secure Local Jobs) Code 2020 (ACT), DI2020-278, ACT Legislation Register (the Code as the operative instrument; provisions dealing with the costs of the approved auditor and transitional arrangements; application of the Code to new procurements). ↩ ↩
14. Government Procurement (Secure Local Jobs) Amendment Act 2018 (ACT), passed 25 October 2018 (requirement that an application include a current report from an approved auditor in accordance with the audit guidelines; the Registrar’s power to grant a certificate; surrender provisions; section 22H exemption enabling a responsible chief executive officer to exempt a territory entity from the section 22G requirements for a procurement proposal or procurement). ↩ ↩
15. Master Builders Association / Procurement ACT — Getting a Secure Local Jobs Code Certificate factsheet (excluded services test; statement that after the approved auditor submits the completed audit report it generally takes between two and five business days for the Registrar to consider the certificate application; direction to LRTWE Plan templates). ↩
16. Procurement ACT — Labour Relations, Training and Workplace Equity Plans (from 1 March 2022, LRTWE Plan required for cleaning, security or traffic management work worth more than $25,000; threshold for construction work increased from $25,000 to $200,000 to reduce administrative burden; plan to be developed in consultation with employees and to include a statement about how that was done; successful tenderer to operate in alignment with the plan for the duration of the project). ↩ ↩
17. Procurement ACT — Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation (evaluation conducted under the Government Procurement (Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation) Direction 2023 (No 2), applying from 1 January 2024; assessment against the Fair and Safe Employment Criteria; alignment with the Fair and Safe Conditions for Workers procurement value; exclusions for contracts established through standing offer as defined by the Government Procurement Regulation 2007 and for procurements granted a Code exemption under section 22H; tenderer complaints under the Supplier Complaints Management Procedure). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
18. Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate — Promoting fairer and safer jobs through government procurement, media release (assessment used for procurements that require a Secure Local Jobs Code Certificate, have a total estimated value of $200,000 or more and are conducted by open tender; assessment determines whether a supplier is eligible to proceed for assessment against other procurement criteria such as capability and price; commencement from 1 February 2022; development in consultation with the Secure Local Jobs Code Advisory Council comprising business and union representatives). ↩ ↩ ↩
19. Government Procurement (Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation) Direction, ACT Legislation Register and ACT Legislative Assembly tabled papers (Delegate as ultimate decision maker for the procurement; requirement to notify the Secure Local Jobs Code Branch within three business days with reasons where a decision differs from the Branch’s recommendation; inclusion of a tenderer in one instance not creating a precedent for automatic inclusion; evaluation not applying directly to subcontractors, with tenderers responsible for subcontractor due diligence reflected in approach to market documents and contracts). ↩ ↩
20. Procurement ACT — Compliance, Secure Local Jobs Code Advisory Council meeting records, 2026 (legislative amendments to the Government Procurement Act 2001 legislating the Chair role of the Council to be the Secure Local Jobs Code Registrar; record of no exemptions having been granted since the previous meeting; cancellation of the certifications of two entities on 11 March 2026, following which certification was not granted to two associated entities; Secure Local Jobs Code and Ethical Treatment of Workers Evaluation dashboard reporting; discussion of local industry participation plan documentation requirements and alignment with LRTWE reporting). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
21. Procurement ACT — Secure Local Jobs Code Certified Entities register (public list of businesses holding current Secure Local Jobs Code Certificates and treated as Code Certified Entities). ↩ ↩
22. Procurement ACT — Prequalification (prequalification as demonstration of technical, work health and safety management and business capabilities prior to supplying to the ACT Government; requirement to be prequalified to be eligible to tender for design and construction procurements above $250,000). ↩ ↩
23. ACT Government — ACT Government Prequalification Scheme for Construction Industry Contractors: Contractor Policy and Guidelines, version 4.3, updated June 2025 (Prequalification Registrar as the Senior Director, Contracts and Prequalification Unit; Prequalification Unit administrative support; definition of a procurement process as a request for tender, request for proposal, expression of interest, request for quotation or any other request for offer issued by the Territory; sanction defined as downgrading, suspension or cancellation of a contractor’s prequalification; reference to the National Prequalification System for Non-Residential Building over $50 million). ↩
24. Infrastructure Canberra — Prequalification and Apply for National prequalification (National Prequalification Scheme for Non-Residential Building Contractors for building work of $50 million and greater and National Prequalification System for Civil (Road and Bridge) Construction; assessment by the Prequalification Registrar with written notification of approval; prequalification approved for three years and then fully reviewed; note that National Engineering Register registration applies only to ACT prequalification and not to the National Prequalification Scheme for Civil Road and Bridge). ↩ ↩ ↩
25. Austroads — National Prequalification System: Prequalification requirements and National Prequalification System for Civil (Road and Bridge) Construction (2025 Edition), AP-C96-25 (framework harmonised across state and territory road agencies; requirement for companies tendering to Australian road agencies for roadworks and bridgeworks contracts to be prequalified under the NPS; local administration by each participating agency). ↩
26. ACT Government — Fact Sheet: Joint Ventures | Prequalification Requirements, A27620180, version 01, 16 December 2020 (adoption of the NPS by the ACT for Civil Road and Bridge and for commercial work exceeding $50 million; requirement that each company forming an incorporated joint venture be prequalified to the required category or categories in its own right; statement that the joint venture will be in default of its contractual obligation should either company’s prequalification expire or be terminated; requirement that combined financial statements equal the required financial criteria for the requested financial level; current public liability of at least $20 million, workers’ compensation, and professional indemnity of at least $5 million or the required amount; current audited and certified quality, safety and environmental management systems with one company’s system nominated for the joint venture; completion of a past project meeting the required technical level; requirement that the joint venture itself be prequalified in its own right, form an incorporated entity with an ABN, provide a solicitor’s letter on structure, terms of agreement and operation as a separate entity, state joint and several liability to the Territory, commit to purchasing insurances and nominate an address; unincorporated joint ventures accepted at the sole discretion of the Territory, eligible only for Conditional prequalification and possibly not mutually recognised; joint bids applicable only to projects covered by the ACT Government’s Prequalification Scheme and not acceptable for projects covered by the NPS). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
27. Tenders ACT — Project Management Agreement Panel Refresh pre-tender consultation notice, MPC 003 29696, Infrastructure Canberra (prequalification categories PM Civil R1 and PM Civil R2 and PMC F2; refresh of the existing panel of project managers delivering works under the PMA across ACT Government directorates; inclusion of a civil subsection for suitable civil contractors; encouragement to apply for prequalification in PM Civil R1 or R2; statement that work is shared across panel members with no obligation on the Territory to engage a panel member; statement that tenderers may generally only participate in a procurement process if prequalified in the required category and at or above the required financial threshold prior to tender closing). ↩ ↩ ↩
28. Procurement ACT — Canberra Region Local Industry Participation Policy and Policies and factsheets (policy applying to all approaches to market by Territory entities as implemented from 1 January 2017; purpose of ensuring competitive local businesses including SMEs are given every opportunity to respond; Economic Contribution Test for procurements valued between $200,000 and $5 million; Local Industry Participation Plan required for procurements of $5 million and above). ↩ ↩
29. Procurement ACT — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Procurement Policy (policy launched 31 May 2019 supporting the objectives of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019–2028; exemption from the quotation thresholds enabling a direct quote to be sought from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprise for goods and services under $200,000; recognition of Certifying Authorities confirming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ownership and control; maintenance of a list of Canberra Region Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enterprises with Supply Nation Indigenous Business Direct as the fallback where no suitable regional enterprise exists; statement that from 15 January 2019 businesses in construction, cleaning, security or traffic management require a Secure Local Jobs Certificate and must meet workplace standards to be eligible for engagement on an ACT Government contract; inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment questions in the Local Industry Participation Plan). ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
30. Procurement ACT — Registers (Contracts Register, Notifiable Invoices Register, Secure Local Jobs Code Certified Entities register and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprises register); Procurement ACT — Request a debrief and Supplier and Tenderer Complaints. ↩ ↩