Correspondence About AI Transparency In Commonwealth Contracts

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 16 May 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The Department of Finance updated Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) and standardised contracting templates for Management Advisory Services (MAS) and People Panel arrangements, effective November 2025. For procurements under $125,000 (GST inclusive), RFQs must invite only small and medium enterprises (SMEs); above this threshold, at least one SME must be included. The department also introduced new AI transparency requirements in RFQ and Work Order documents to help entities manage supplier use of artificial intelligence systems. RFQ templates now include an "Use of AI Systems" section offering two options: entities can consent to AI use (requiring suppliers to disclose which systems will be used, implementation details, and data governance processes) or prohibit AI use entirely. Corresponding Work Order clauses bind service providers to approved AI usage parameters where consent is granted.