# Tenders WA: How to Find and Win Western Australian Government Tenders
How Tenders WA works: who publishes on it, how to register and set alerts, the Procurement Act 2020 and WA Procurement Rules, Common Use Arrangements, Buy Local and WAIPS, and how to lodge an electronic response.
Tenders WA is the Western Australian Government's tender website. Its own FAQ calls it "the central source of information on Western Australian public sector requests and awarded contracts, including sole source purchases". If you sell to WA State agencies, it is the one site you have to watch.
The machinery behind it changed in 2025. The Department of Finance was split: from 1 July 2025, procurement policy and Tenders WA moved to the Department of Treasury and Finance, and building and works procurement went to the new Department of Housing and Works. Many older wa.gov.au pages still mention the Department of Finance, so do not be thrown when the names do not match.
This guide covers what Tenders WA publishes, who uses it, the WA rules in plain words, and how to respond. For federal opportunities, see our [AusTender guide](/tenders/australia/austender); for New South Wales, our [buy NSW guide](/tenders/australia/buy-nsw).
## What Tenders WA publishes
Tenders WA is organised around the life of a procurement. The main views are:
- **Early Tender Advice.** Notices that a request is coming, published ahead of the approach to market. This is your head start.
- **Advertised.** Open requests you can respond to, with documents attached.
- **Closed and Under Evaluation.** Requests that have closed and are being assessed.
- **Results and Recently Awarded.** Awarded contracts, searchable by agency and category. The Western Australian Procurement Rules require agencies to publish award details, including the supplier, estimated value and procurement method.
- **Debarred Suppliers.** The register of suppliers debarred or suspended under the Procurement Act 2020.
There is also a Community Services section for procurements under the Delivering Community Services in Partnership Policy, which matters if you are a not-for-profit provider.
## Who advertises on Tenders WA
Every State agency subject to the Procurement Act 2020 must advertise its tenders on Tenders WA. Other public authorities can advertise there only with permission from the Department of Treasury and Finance, and the FAQ is blunt that no other entity will be given it.
The Act does not cover every public body. It excludes, among others, the electricity corporations (Synergy and Western Power), the port authorities, the Water Corporation, DevelopmentWA and the universities. Several of those run their own systems: the Water Corporation uses its own eProcurement supplier portal, and Western Power and Synergy run their tendering in SAP Ariba, where Western Power's tenders are by invitation only. If any of them are on your target list, register with each directly.
WA Health entities, including Health Support Services, publish through Tenders WA. Councils do not; they have their own rules (see below).
## The WA procurement framework in plain words
**The Procurement Act 2020** sets the rules for State Government buying of goods, services and works. Its objects include achieving value for money, reducing barriers for small and medium businesses, maintaining integrity, and encouraging innovation. The Act also abolished the State Supply Commission and introduced the debarment regime that sits behind the Debarred Suppliers register.
**The Western Australian Procurement Rules** turn the Act into day-to-day requirements for agencies. The current version took effect on 1 July 2025. They set the minimum procurement method by value: the Rules require an open advertisement for purchases of $250,000 and above, and agencies must use Tenders WA to advertise those requests. Below that, agencies can approach suppliers directly or seek limited quotes, which is why being known to buyers matters as well as watching the site.
The Rules also give suppliers rights worth knowing: a minimum period for advertised requests, published contract awards, and a debrief for any unsuccessful supplier who asks.
**The Department of Housing and Works** facilitates larger goods and services procurements for many agencies and project manages works procurement. Some agencies with their own works powers, such as Main Roads, run their own works tenders, though Main Roads still publishes them through Tenders WA.
## How to register and set up alerts
1. **Register as a supplier on Tenders WA.** You will be asked for your ABN. Registration lets you download electronic tender documents, submit electronic responses, and receive notice of changes such as addenda.
2. **Choose your regions.** Select the regions of Western Australia where your business operates, so alerts reflect where you can actually deliver.
3. **Choose your products and services.** These build your "My Categories" profile, which drives your email alerts for public tenders.
4. **Save searches with alerts** for anything your categories miss, including Early Tender Advice in your field.
5. **Register as a potential respondent on each request you download.** The Department of Treasury and Finance's guidance notes that this is how addenda reach you.
Tenders WA support sits with the Department of Treasury and Finance's Procurement Business Systems team, which also runs supplier training on using the site.
If you also chase work in other states or with councils, our guide to [finding RFPs and tenders](/blog/how-to-find-rfps) covers how to keep the inbound volume manageable.
## Common Use Arrangements and other panels
Common Use Arrangements (CUAs) are standing offer arrangements, generally administered by the Department of Treasury and Finance, covering things like fuel, computers, electricity, travel, advertising and stationery. State agencies, local governments, and approved universities and charities can buy from them, and most CUAs are mandatory for agencies in the Perth metropolitan area.
For suppliers, that means a lot of routine government spending only reaches businesses already on the relevant CUA. Getting on one means responding when the arrangement goes to market, so keep an eye on Early Tender Advice in your categories for CUA refreshes.
Building and construction has its own lists:
- **Builders Prequalification Scheme.** Run by the Department of Housing and Works for builders on larger non-residential building contracts, with periodic renewal.
- **Consultant panels.** The Department of Housing and Works keeps panels of architectural, engineering, cost management and other consultants, and seeks new applications through Tenders WA when it needs more.
- **Main Roads.** Main Roads takes part in the National Prequalification System for civil road and bridge work.
## Buy Local, WAIPS and Aboriginal procurement
Western Australia uses procurement to support local and regional business, and three policies come up regularly in tenders:
- **WA Buy Local Policy 2022.** It focuses on regional sourcing and regional price preferences. A regional price preference reduces an eligible supplier's tender price for evaluation purposes only, either for being a regional business or for using regional content. It applies to public authorities and government trading enterprises, and does not apply where delivery is in the Perth metropolitan area.
- **Western Australian Industry Participation Strategy (WAIPS).** Set under the Western Australian Jobs Act 2017, it requires a participation plan with bids on larger contracts. The plan is submitted through the WAIPS Portal and can carry weight in the qualitative evaluation. Local Content Advisers in the Regional Development Commissions can help suppliers understand what is required.
- **Aboriginal Procurement Policy.** Now issued as a General Procurement Direction administered by the Department of Treasury and Finance, it sets contract-award targets for Aboriginal businesses and Aboriginal community controlled organisations, and adds participation requirements to some contracts. Purchases from Registered Aboriginal Businesses and Australian Disability Enterprises are also exempt from the Rules' minimum procurement methods, which makes direct engagement simpler.
If a tender includes a WAIPS plan or a regional preference claim, treat it as part of the scored response from the start.
## How to respond to a Tenders WA request
**Qualify the opportunity.** Read the conditions of tender, the qualitative criteria and the contract terms, and test them against your capacity before you commit. A [structured go/no-go](/blog/rfp-go-no-go) is the cheapest way to protect your win rate.
**Treat compliance items as pass or fail.** Department of Treasury and Finance guidance points out that prequalification and compliance requirements are yes or no answers, and missing one can eliminate an otherwise strong bid. Price in exactly the format asked for and respect page limits.
**Ask the contact person early.** Questions go to the contact person named in the request documents. Watch Tenders WA for addenda right up to the closing time, and attend site visits even when they are optional.
**Write to the qualitative criteria.** Answer each criterion directly with evidence of past performance, named personnel and method. Our guide to [writing a winning tender response](/blog/tender-response) covers this in depth.
**Lodge electronically, and early.** Tenders WA uses Electronic Tender Lodgement, which delivers your submission to the agency's tender box. Responses cannot be emailed. Treasury and Finance advises allowing at least an hour before closing, because an upload still in progress at the closing time stops automatically, and late tenders are set aside. There is a demonstration tender on the site for practising the upload before it counts.
Much of a WA response is standard material (capability, insurances, policies, past projects) that teams rewrite every time. AutoRFP.ai drafts those answers from content your team has approved and shows the source behind each one, leaving your writers to spend their effort on the criteria that separate you from other bidders.
## How WA local governments tender
Councils are outside the Procurement Act and do not advertise on Tenders WA. They tender under the Local Government (Functions and General) Regulations 1996, which require public tenders for contracts above a set value, with statewide public notice. Councils can also set up panels of pre-qualified suppliers, and buying through the WALGA Preferred Supply Program is one of the exemptions from tendering.
Each council chooses its own platform. The City of Wanneroo runs its own e-tender portal, and the City of Joondalup uses a portal administered by Tenderlink. The Small Business Development Corporation's tendering pages are a good starting point for a business new to council work.
## Building a WA pipeline
Tenders WA rewards suppliers who use more of it than the Advertised list. Early Tender Advice tells you what is coming, contract award results tell you who holds the work and when it ends, and a debrief after every loss tells you how evaluators read your response. Combine those with CUA positioning and the right prequalifications, and you are rarely surprised by a WA tender. For the habits that turn a pipeline into wins, read our guide on [tender bidding](/blog/tender-bidding), and for writing craft, our [tender writing best practices](/blog/tender-writing-how-to-write-a-tender-and-best-practices).
When you are responding to several WA requests at once, AutoRFP.ai keeps every approved answer in one library and drafts new tenders from it, cites the source for each response, and flags any question it cannot support so a person can pick it up. Our [RFP software](/rfp-software) page shows the workflow.