25/02/2026
The November 2025 amendment to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) has seen significant changes to the way in which contractors interact with the Government.
While much of the discussion surrounding the new CPRs has focused on the preference for Australian business and SME (which you can read about here: Updates to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules – Griffin Legal), a similarly important set of changes affects how Commonwealth entities must manage confidential information and conduct contract negotiations.
Sharing confidential Information
Commonwealth entities are now required to include provisions in requests for documentation and contracts alerting that confidential information supplied for a tender may be shared with:
- the Parliament; parliamentary committees (which is required under the old CPR’s); or
- other Commonwealth entities where it serves the Commonwealth’s legitimate interests.
What’s new is the ability for Commonwealth entities to share confidential information to other entities for other purposes including policy development, research, compliance and non-commercial purposes. Commonwealth entities include any department or commonwealth corporation. It is not clear at this stage how widely this authorisation to share information will be used.
Contract Negotiations
The new CPR’s are now more prescriptive regarding contract and tender negotiations in procurements above the relevant procurement threshold ($125,000 in most cases). Prior to these amendments, negotiation practices varied between entities as there was limited guidance on how these negotiations are to be conducted. The updated rules now set a clear and consistent standard.
According to the revised CPRs, agencies may only commence negotiations where:
- The intention to negotiate was expressly stated in the approach‑to‑market (ATM) documentation; or
- No single tenderer has been assessed as providing the best value for money under the published evaluation criteria.
Once negotiations commence, entities must also:
- Ensure that all essential requirements and the evaluation criteria are considered before any tenderer is excluded from participating in negotiations; and
- Provide all remaining tenderers with a common deadline for submitting revised tenders.
Other Changes
Ethical Conduct is now a value for money consideration – this requirement has been moved from Division 2 to Division 1, meaning it applies to all procurements, as opposed to just those that exceed the relevant procurement thresholds. Officials are now required for all procurements to make reasonable enquiries to confirm that the procurement is carried out considering relevant regulations and/or regulatory frameworks, including but not limited to compliance with:
- labour regulations,
- employment practices,
- WHS, and
- environmental impacts.
New Supplier Portal – the Commonwealth has launched a new publicly available database of government suppliers. The Supplier portal publishes limited company details and applicable panel arrangements.
When to apply the new CPR’s
The new CPR’s commenced 17 November 2025 and apply to all new approaches to market that commenced on or after that date. Further, procurements from standing offers (other than the Management and Advisory Services Panel and the People Panel) that went to market prior to 17 November will still be covered by the superseded CPR’s.