Local Jobs First
Local Jobs First (LJF) is about creating local jobs and opportunities for Victorian businesses and workers, ensuring they are given full and fair opportunity to compete for large and small Victorian Government contracts.



The Local Jobs First policy must be applied by all Victorian government departments and agencies for any type of project with a value of:
- $1 million or more in regional Victoria, or
- $3 million or more in metropolitan Melbourne or for state-wide activities.
Minimum local content requirements are set for government projects worth $50 million or more or for other projects as agreed.
Through this policy, Victoria has a strong mandate to drive local jobs and capability for Government-funded and supported major projects.
Our role and this policy could not be more important as Australia recovers from the effects of COVID-19, and the desire for sovereign capability has never been stronger.
Major Project Skills Guarantee (MPSG)
This policy helps create opportunities for Victorian apprentices, trainees and cadets to work on Victoria’s building and infrastructure projects supporting the skills pipeline.
Under the MPSG, all construction projects valued at or over $20 million are required to use Victorian apprentices, trainees or cadets for at least 10 per cent of the total estimated labour hours.
Update: Steel Policy Enhancements August 2022
The Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions and the Local Jobs First Commissioner released Steel Policy Enhancements to Government Procurement.
A new process has been introduced to apply for strategic projects.
Key changes to policy:
- All steel packages for strategic government projects, greater than $50m in value, must be published on ICN Gateway for full transparency and visibility
- Any significant diversion by a supplier for a LJF project must now notify the project delivery agency in advance of any changes to local sourcing
A significant diversion is one that proposes to:
- reduce the local content of any steel item or
- reduce by 20% or more local content of any item of significant value to the project ($5 million or 5% of total project value)
For more details please read here
Upcoming events

ICN Victoria Grand Prix
ICN Victoria is bringing this popular speaker event back to the Grand Prix racetrack in 2023
Latest firesides
Fireside Chat with Wamarra – Hayden Heta
Fireside Chat with Glenne Drover
Latest issues of Prospect
Victorian Project List – April 2023
Victorian Project List – March 2023
Victorian Project List -December 2022
Past events

Project Industry Briefing: Moderna mRNA Vaccine Facility
The mRNA vaccine facility is being established under a 10-year partnership between Moderna and the Australian and Victorian Governments and is expected to be the first facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
ICN Social Procurement Team

Chris Reilly
Chris has over 48 years’ experience relating to all sectors of industry including roles as a qualified boilermaker, engineering sales and marketing large fabrication and machining, as well as roles in consulting and business development and now one of our highly experienced Industry Advisers.
Joining the team in 2007, he has been instrumental in managing stakeholder engagement in a number of key projects, including the Australian cluster of suppliers for Team Australia Automotive (TAA) exporting into North America, secondment into the procurement team for the Victorian Desalination Project, working with the procurement team to maximise local content for the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, coordinated the bimonthly Victorian ‘Local Content’ roundtable with the Australian Steel Institute, InfraBuild and BlueScope Steel.
Chris not only carries a broad wealth of experience but also possesses outstanding networking and customer relationship skills that can assist our clients in delivering procurement outcomes.

Peter McCracken
Peter McCracken is the Regional Industry Advisor for Barwon and Great South Coast. Peter has extensive experience in manufacturing – particularly in the automotive sector – with roles covering business development/sales, training, installation, and production. Peter has worked at the Ford Motor Company, at which he held a range of roles from electrical to plant supervisor. Peter then moved onto both technical and business development roles with companies such as Clipsal, Schneider Electric and Eaton Industries.

Colin Young
Colin Young is the Regional Industry Advisor for Gippsland. Colin has an extensive background in the energy sector, including more than 25 years as Engineering Manager at Victoria’s largest power station, Loy Yang A. As a long-term local resident of Gippsland, Colin has a passion for regional business with a particular focus on helping them transition to renewable energy opportunities as they emerge.

Noel Morton
Noel Morton is the Regional Industry Advisor for Loddon Mallee. Noel has a strong background in the Defence sector and is passionate about the history of Australian manufacturing. Noel is a Fitter & Machinist by trade and spent around 28 years working for the Commonwealth Government Ordnance group and later Australian Defence Industries in Bendigo. Noel’s involvement during that time included designing and manufacturing heavy military ordnance and large civil infrastructure components, for example. Noel has also achieved an Advanced Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. During his time in the Defence sector working on specialist military vehicles, Noel had direct engagement with ICN Victoria (then the ISO) and could see the great value it had in supporting buyers on major projects as well as increasing opportunity for local manufacturers.

Garry Holding
Garry Holding is the Regional Industry Advisor for Ballarat and the Grampians. Having lived and worked there most of his life. Garry’s working career has been in a diverse range of areas including business ownership and management, workplace training, managing an RTO delivering Government programs to business, business development, and manufacturing. Garry is passionate about helping local win. He thoroughly enjoys this role and being part of a dedicated professional team focussed on helping business grow is full of rewards.

Grant Jennings
Grant Jennings holds the role of Regional Industry Advisor for the Greater Shepparton and Hume region. Grant has extensive manufacturing experience within various sectors such as technology, biomedical, construction and recycling. This included several years located in the USA working for a large global technology company, including roles such as manufacturing manager and plant manager. Formal qualifications include a business degree from Charles Sturt University and Cert IV in Electronics from Box Hill TAFE. Growing up on a dairy farm in regional Victoria has provided the background to understanding regional living and the importance of opportunity and regional economic growth.