Getting your business ready for ACT Government work
Canberra has more government work per head than anywhere in the country, and most small trade businesses never touch it. Not because they can't do the work — because nobody's ever told them what the paperwork actually is. Here it is, in order.
Step 1 — The Secure Local Jobs Code certificate
This is the gate. Everything else comes after it.
Who needs one
- Construction work — any contract value
- Cleaning — any contract value
- Security — any contract value
- Traffic management — any contract value
- Most other services — from $200,000, where labour is the biggest cost
Some sectors are carved out — financial services, IT, professional services and healthcare among them.
What it costs and how long it lasts
- 0–9 employees — roughly $450–$850
- 10–49 employees — roughly $700–$2,000
- 50–249 employees — roughly $1,000–$3,250
- 250+ employees — roughly $1,100–$3,500
- Certificate valid up to 30 months, depending on your compliance history
- Registrar issues it within five business days of a complete application
Those are indicative auditor costs. Your auditor quotes you.
The five steps
- Read the Code and work out what applies to you. Boring, unavoidable, and it's the step that makes the audit painless instead of painful.
- Fix your policies and systems first. An auditor assesses what you've actually got. Turning up with nothing written down means paying someone to tell you that.
- Engage an approved auditor. Only auditors on the approved list count. Procurement ACT publishes who they are.
- Get your paperwork together — the application form, your BAS or instalment activity statements, and evidence you've actually been paying super. Your auditor may want more.
- Submit it through your auditor. Certificate lands within five business days of a complete application.
Step 2 — The Labour Relations, Training and Workplace Equity Plan
A separate document on top of the certificate, and it kicks in at a much lower number than people expect.
When you need one
- Cleaning, security, traffic management — from $25,000
- Construction — from $200,000
Why it trips people up
Twenty-five grand is one decent cleaning contract. Plenty of businesses get the certificate, win the work, then find out there's a second document due. Sort it at the same time as the certificate and it's one job instead of two.
Step 3 — Register on Tenders ACT
- Register as a supplier at tenders.act.gov.au. Free, and it's how you get told when something in your category comes up.
- Set your categories properly. Too narrow and you miss work; too broad and you drown in notices for things you don't do.
- Look at panel arrangements, not just one-off tenders. A panel is where an agency pre-approves a list of suppliers and then draws from it for smaller jobs without running a full tender each time. For a small business that's the realistic way in.
- AusTender (tenders.gov.au) is the separate Commonwealth one, and there's a lot of federal property in this town.
Step 4 — Prequalification, if the work is big enough
When it applies
Design and construction procurements above $250,000. Below that you generally don't need it, which is worth knowing before you start a process you don't have to.
What it involves
Demonstrating technical capability, work health and safety management, and business capacity — before you can quote. It runs for three years, with an annual financial assessment along the way. Infrastructure Canberra handles it.
The stuff that has to be in order regardless
- Current ABN. Sounds obvious. Expired ABNs are one of the most common reasons a bid dies at the first check.
- Current licences for every trade you're bidding in, in the right jurisdiction. ACT licences come through Access Canberra; NSW is a separate system.
- Public liability insurance at the level the buyer specifies, with the certificate of currency ready to attach as a PDF.
- Workers compensation if you employ anyone, and proof of it.
- Superannuation actually paid and evidenced. The Code audit looks at this directly.
- A real safety system. Not a folder of downloaded theory — an SWMS for the work you genuinely do, and evidence you use it on site.
- Two or three referees from completed jobs, with someone who'll actually pick up the phone.
Honest expectations
What it's good for
Steady, repeatable work with a buyer who pays reliably and doesn't haggle after the fact. Brilliant ballast for a business that already has private work coming in.
What it isn't
Fast. From getting your certificate to being paid on a first job can be months. The paperwork is front-loaded — a hard fortnight once, then years of being reachable. Don't restructure the business around it before you've won something.
Where we come in
None of the above is secret and none of it costs anything to read. What we do for subscribed trades is the part that actually stops people.
- A checklist for your business, not a generic one — which of the four "any value" categories you fall into, and therefore what you need before you quote anything.
- A document pack that's ready to send — ABN, licences, certificate of currency, referees, safety docs, all current and in one place, so a tender or a facilities manager gets it the same day they ask.
- A heads-up when panels open. Panel applications open at set times and close quietly. Missing one costs you a year.
- A read of the notice before you spend a week on it, so you bid on the ones you can actually win.
We don't lodge bids for you, we can't guarantee prequalification or a certificate, and we've got no relationship with any of the agencies above. What we do is stop you finding out about the Code the week after you needed it.