Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher is preparing to ring in the new financial year with a fresh crackdown on entrenched major suppliers, contractors and consulting firms feeding on the government’s $70 billion annual purchasing spend, tweaking a raft of targets and thresholds in the hope smaller businesses can finally compete with big incumbents.

Updates to the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPR) — set to come into force on July 1, 2024 — outlined by Gallagher on Monday reveal that the government will boost the target for sourcing from small business for contracts under $1 billion from 20% to 25%, while the small business target for deals below $20 million is rising from 35% to 40%.

A full list of what’s actually changing in the Commonwealth Procurement Rules on July 1 has also been released by the Department of Finance.