People ask me all the time whether a tender is a tender, or whether the mines play by different rules to government.
The short answer is that they are two different games.
They look similar on the surface. Both send you a pack of documents, both ask you to fill in schedules, both pick a winner. But the thing that drives each one is completely different, and once you understand that difference you will write far stronger responses to both.
I have spent decades on the other side of the table, reading, marking and comparing bids in both government and resources/ oil & gas. Let me walk you through what actually separates a government tender from a resource sector one, why they behave the way they do, and where they are quietly starting to look the same.
The one difference that explains all the others
A government buyer is spending public money. A resource company is spending its own.
That single fact sits underneath everything else.
Because government spends taxpayer money, it is bound by law and policy to run a fair, open and accountable process. Every step has to be defensible.
A miner or an oil and gas operator has no such obligation. It answers to its board and its shareholders, and it can buy however it decides is best for the project.
In summary: Government is built around accountability. The resource sector is built around commercial outcome and risk. Almost every tactical difference below flows from those two starting points.
The legislative difference
Government procurement is genuinely governed by legislation and formal rules.
If you are bidding to a Commonwealth agency, for example, the process sits under the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. Those rules set the point at which an agency must go to open tender. As of the November 2025 update, that threshold is $125,000 including GST for most goods and services, and $7.5 million for construction. Below the line the agency has more discretion. At or above it, the opportunity has to be openly approached.
Here in Western Australia, state agencies work under the Procurement Act 2020 and the Western Australian Procurement Rules that sit beneath it. Local councils run under their own Local Government regulations. The dollar figures and portals differ, but the principle is the same everywhere. Public buyers must advertise, must evaluate against published criteria, and must be able to show they were fair.
Other government jurisdictions are similarly
The resource sector has no equivalent rulebook.
A mining company buys under ordinary contract law and its own internal procurement policy. There is no Act telling it to advertise, no legislated threshold forcing an open process, no obligation to tell an unsuccessful bidder why it missed out. It sets its own standards, its own prequalification hurdles and its own commercial terms.
That is the legislative divide in one line. Government is told how to buy. The resource sector chooses how to buy.
The tactical difference: how you actually win each one
This is where it matters for your writing.
To win government work, you write to the rules.
The evaluators can only score what is in front of them, and they can only score it against the published criteria. You cannot pick up the phone and sell during a live process, because probity forbids it. So your whole job is on the page. Answer every criterion in the words they used. Meet every compliance requirement. Leave nothing blank. Give the panel the evidence it needs to defend choosing you.
Government rewards the bid that is compliant, clear and directly responsive.
To win resource sector work, you write to the risk.
A project buyer is thinking about one thing above all: will this supplier deliver without blowing up my schedule, my budget or my safety record. So the resource sector leans hard on prequalification, on demonstrated safety performance, on relevant project experience and on commercial certainty. Relationships matter here in a way they simply cannot in a probity-bound government process. Getting onto the approved vendor list is often half the battle.
Government asks "can you prove you meet the criteria". The resource sector asks "can I trust you on my site".
Write to the wrong one and even a strong company will lose.
How to find each
You find government tenders in the open. That is the whole point of them.
Commonwealth opportunities are published on AusTender. State agency opportunities go up on a common government tenders portal at tenders.[insert state acronym here].gov.au. Councils advertise on their own sites and local portals. Register, set up alerts, and the work comes to you.
Resource sector opportunities are far quieter. Many never get publicly advertised at all. Some use the Industry Capability Network (icn.org.au).
The way in is usually a vendor prequalification or supplier registration system. Large operators run their supply through platforms and approved-vendor programmes, and a great deal of work flows to firms already sitting on those lists. So the path is to register on the relevant prequalification systems, get in front of the tier one contractors who service the mines, and build the relationships that put your name in the room before a package is ever released.
Government you find by looking. The resource sector you find by being known.
The similarities, especially with the mature resource buyers
The most mature resource buyers have started to look a lot like government.
The big miners and the major operators now run large, structured procurement functions. They use weighted evaluation criteria. They run formal RFx processes through e-procurement systems. They ask for compliance schedules, insurance, safety and increasingly detailed ESG and social commitments. They keep audit trails and they expect a professional, well-evidenced response.
So while the legislation does not bind them, many of them have chosen to adopt the same disciplines, because structure and fairness lead to better commercial decisions and less risk.
What that means for you is simple. A sloppy, relationship-only approach that might have worked with a small operator years ago will not carry a bid with a major resource buyer today. They will read your response much the way a government panel does. Clear claims, real evidence, direct answers to what they asked.
The gap between the two worlds is narrowing at the top end. The strongest suppliers are the ones who bring government-grade rigour to a resource bid, and commercial, risk-aware thinking to a government one.
Where this leaves you
Two games, one skill set underneath.
Work out who you are really writing to, what drives their decision, and what they are allowed and inclined to reward. Then answer that.
Strategy first, words second. Every time.
If you are weighing up a resource sector or a government tender and you are not sure which rules you are playing by, that is exactly the moment to get a second set of eyes on it before you write a word. Reach out and let us help you pitch to the right game.
