Federal Government failing small business in legal services procurement

I always like having a brief look at the current Panel Head Agreement for the Provision of Legal Services to the Australian Government just to see how unfriendly it is to small business law firms. The current version of the Agreement continues in that long tradition by requiring law firms to - (1) provide a wide range of value added services at no cost, including training sessions and letting government departments use your offices at no charge (2) take out high levels of insurance cover (3) provide extensive warranties and indemnities (4) commit to highly onerous reporting requirements and (5) pay the AG's a Panel Fee set as a percentage of total billings. Surprisingly, one major legal area which is not covered by the Agreement is the provision of consumer law advice. This seems particularly strange given the extension of the unfair contract term (UCT) laws to small businesses from November 2016.

Surely Federal Government departments are going to need some advice about how not to fall foul of these UCT laws in their standard form contracts, most likely starting with the AG's own Agreement for the Provision of Legal Services!