Victoria’s Social Procurement Framework: how it works and where LGBTIQA+ owned businesses fit

Disclosure. Just Gold, which funds and publishes Pride in Business, has been a Social Traders certified social enterprise since 2019. It has also worked with Social Traders as a client, including producing its digital awards and providing photography and video for Convene 2026.

The Framework and who it applies to

When a Victorian department buys goods, services or construction, the Social Procurement Framework asks it to consider social and environmental value alongside price and quality. The Framework was launched in 2018 and applies to departments and agencies covered by the Standing Directions 2018 under the Financial Management Act 1994, and other public bodies are encouraged to use it. The Department of Government Services has coordinated it since 1 January 2023. For suppliers, the Framework shapes what buyers are looking for and how tenders are scored.

The objectives buyers pursue

The Framework sets seven social objectives: opportunities for Victorian Aboriginal people, opportunities for Victorians with disability, women’s equality and safety, opportunities for priority jobseekers, safe and fair workplaces, sustainable social enterprise and Aboriginal business sectors, and sustainable regions. A further three objectives cover the environment. Buyers select the objectives that are relevant to a particular purchase, so a supplier’s first task is to establish which of them a buyer has prioritised.

Direct purchasing and purchasing through suppliers

The government buys directly from social benefit suppliers, a term covering Victorian social enterprises, Victorian Aboriginal businesses and Victorian Australian Disability Enterprises. It also buys through ordinary suppliers, whom it asks in tenders and contracts to show how their own practices advance its objectives. Most businesses will encounter the Framework through this second route.

Requirements by contract value

The Framework sets four bands according to contract value. All values exclude GST, and regional purchases have a lower first threshold than metropolitan or state wide purchases. For contracts under $1 million in regional areas, or under $3 million for metropolitan or state wide purchases, buyers are expected to build the objectives into normal procurement planning and to look for opportunities to buy from social benefit suppliers, an approach the Framework encourages without prescribing it. From those thresholds up to $20 million, buyers weight evaluation criteria at 5 to 10 per cent towards suppliers whose practices support the objectives, and consider setting aside parts of the work for social enterprises or Aboriginal businesses.

For contracts between $20 million and $50 million, buyers prepare a Social Procurement Plan and include performance standards and contract requirements, such as spending targets with social enterprises and Aboriginal businesses. Contracts over $50 million call for a strategic approach, with targets and contract requirements. For a small business bidding for mid sized work, the 5 to 10 per cent weighting is likely to be the most relevant provision, since it allows evidence of good practice, such as employing priority jobseekers or demonstrating progress on gender equity, to count towards the evaluation score.

Verification of social benefit suppliers

Victoria relies on existing registers to determine which suppliers qualify. Social enterprises must be certified by Social Traders and operate from premises in Victoria, Aboriginal businesses must be verified by Supply Nation or Kinaway, and Australian Disability Enterprises are listed in the BuyAbility directory. In 2023 to 2024, the government reported spending $47.29 million with 96 certified Victorian social enterprises, $51.36 million with 113 certified Victorian Aboriginal businesses and $16.24 million with 39 Australian Disability Enterprises or social enterprises with a disability mission.

The position of LGBTIQA+ owned businesses

LGBTIQA+ ownership is not one of the Framework’s categories, and none of its objectives refers to LGBTIQA+ people, sexual orientation or gender identity. The closest objective, women’s equality and safety, concerns equality in the workplace and does not recognise the ownership of a business.

LGBTIQA+ owned businesses nonetheless have access to the Framework in two ways. A business that is also a certified social enterprise, an Aboriginal business or a disability enterprise can be bought from on that basis, and any business can earn weighted points by showing how its practices advance the objectives a buyer has selected. In both cases the business qualifies on grounds other than LGBTIQA+ ownership.

Owners seeking Victorian Government work should therefore establish which objectives a buyer has prioritised, include evidence in the tender of how the business advances those objectives, and register on the Digital Marketplace Supplier Hub, which Victorian buyers use to find suppliers.

Sources

1. Buying for Victoria, Social procurement
2. Buying for Victoria, Introduction to the Social Procurement Framework
3. Buying for Victoria, Social and sustainable procurement objectives and outcomes
4. Buying for Victoria, Social Procurement Framework requirements and expectations
5. Buying for Victoria, Find social benefit suppliers
6. Buying for Victoria, Social Procurement Framework annual report 2023 to 2024

Source pages last checked 19 October 2026.