Can Queensland Government employees bring their own novated lease finance?
No — the arrangement is exclusive
No, on the published arrangement. Queensland Government salary packaging runs under whole-of-government Standing Offer Arrangements, and the current circular requires agencies to use them: all Queensland Government departments and agencies, including Statutory Bodies and Statutory Authorities other than Government-Owned Corporations, “are required to fully participate in the SOAs”, and that “includes using services of the salary packaging administration suppliers and novated leasing providers contracted under the applicable SOAs, and ensuring employees have access to all of the Queensland Government approved benefit items (but no others)”. Ten novated leasing providers are contracted under SOA QGP0066-23, and millarX is not one of them. Unlike most employers on this site, the restriction here is express rather than assumed — it sits in a published document you can read for yourself.
What this is based on:
Queensland Government Circular C2-24 — Arrangements for salary packaging — Effective 21 June 2024. Requires all Queensland Government departments and agencies, including Statutory Bodies and Statutory Authorities other than Government-Owned Corporations, to fully participate in the whole-of-government Standing Offer Arrangements, including using the novated leasing providers contracted under them. millarX is not among the ten contracted providers.
Last verified September 2026. Arrangements change, and they can differ between agencies and business units — your employer confirms what applies to you.
What you need to do
Ask Queensland Government payroll the question below — One email settles it. We have written it for you — it names no provider, so it is a neutral question about your own arrangement rather than a request to use anyone in particular.
Get a finance quote to compare — Price the car you are actually looking at. You need a real number to put next to the bundled quote — the difference is almost entirely in the interest rate, and that is the part the bundled quote does not itemise.
Hand the approval to your salary packaging administrator — They need written finance approval, the dealer invoice and the lease schedule. We send all three in the format administrators file without asking twice, and we chase what is outstanding rather than leaving it with you.
Everything else stays as it is — your salary packaging administrator continues to run your payroll deductions, running-cost budgets and FBT reporting exactly as before. Nobody at work has to do anything differently.
The question to send payroll
Copy this as it is. It names no finance provider, so it asks about your own arrangement
rather than requesting anyone in particular.
I'm looking at taking out a novated lease. Could you confirm whether I'm able to arrange the finance on the vehicle myself — sometimes called a self-managed or BYO finance novated lease — and have our salary packaging provider administer it, rather than using the financier bundled into the quote? If that's possible, what does our salary packaging provider need from the financier to set it up?
Register interest in being able to choose your financier
This does not go to Queensland Government with your name on it. We count how many people ask, and where enough do we approach the employer about allowing employees a choice of financier without changing their salary packaging provider. Arrangements do change. Register my interest.
The swap that could save you thousands
The loan hiding inside your Queensland Government lease carries a quiet markup.
Swap it for a millarX loan — that's it. Nothing else changes, nobody at work does anything
differently, and the difference stays in your pocket.
A novated lease is two things. You only need to change one of them.
Every novated lease is finance (the loan on the car) plus management (payroll deductions,
budgets, running costs). Your Queensland Government administrator handles the
management brilliantly — but the bundled finance usually carries a hidden margin. BYO swaps
just that part.
Your journey, step by step
Quote — MILLARX
Finance approval — MILLARX
Finance settlement — MILLARX
Car collection — YOU
Paperwork to salary packager — MILLARX HELPS. Our automated system guides you through it
Ongoing management — PACKAGER
millarX handles
The vehicle finance & competitive rate
Setting up the lease paperwork
Getting the deal packaged & handed to your salary packager
Pre-tax / post-tax payroll deductions with your employer
Ongoing account management & support
Your employer appoints the salary packaging administrator, and whoever it is keeps managing the deductions. Your payslip or HR intranet will name them.
What your salary packager asks for — and how we make it easy
A BYO lease asks your administrator for the same paperwork any novated lease does. The
difference is who chases it. Here is every item they'll want, and what happens on our side
of it.
Written confirmation your finance is approved
We send the formal approval — lender, amount, term, residual — the day it comes through, in the format administrators file without asking twice.
The dealer quote or tax invoice for the car
We check the invoice is made out correctly before it goes anywhere, then forward it. A wrong purchaser or GST treatment is the single most common cause of a delayed settlement.
The lease documents and lease schedule
millarX prepares and settles the lease, so the schedule showing rate, term, residual and repayment already exists when they ask for it.
A deed of novation for you and your employer to sign
The administrator issues it. We complete the finance side, explain the two pages that matter, and chase the signatures — the employer execution is arranged through your administrator, not by you.
The exact repayment and start date, to set your payroll deduction
We confirm both in writing and time settlement so your first deduction lands on a full pay cycle rather than a part one.
A comprehensive insurance certificate noting the financier
We give you the exact wording your insurer needs to record millarX as the interested party, so it is right the first time.
Your running-cost budget — kms, fuel or charging, servicing, tyres, rego
This one stays entirely with your administrator. BYO changes the finance only, so the budget you set with them is untouched.
Can Queensland Government employees use their own novated lease finance?
No, on the published arrangement. Queensland Government salary packaging runs under whole-of-government Standing Offer Arrangements, and the current circular requires agencies to use them: all Queensland Government departments and agencies, including Statutory Bodies and Statutory Authorities other than Government-Owned Corporations, “are required to fully participate in the SOAs”, and that “includes using services of the salary packaging administration suppliers and novated leasing providers contracted under the applicable SOAs, and ensuring employees have access to all of the Queensland Government approved benefit items (but no others)”. Ten novated leasing providers are contracted under SOA QGP0066-23, and millarX is not one of them. Unlike most employers on this site, the restriction here is express rather than assumed — it sits in a published document you can read for yourself.
Queensland is the clearest “no” we publish. We would rather tell you that up front than take you through a quote you cannot use.
Queensland Government salary packaging sits under two whole-of-government Standing Offer Arrangements: QGP0065-21 for salary packaging administration, which commenced on 1 April 2022, and QGP0066-23 for novated leasing services, which commenced on 1 March 2024. The current circular is explicit about who has to use them:
“All Queensland Government departments and agencies, including Statutory Bodies and Statutory Authorities (other than Government-Owned Corporations) are required to fully participate in the SOAs administered by Queensland Government Procurement for the purposes of Queensland public sector salary packaging. This includes using services of the salary packaging administration suppliers and novated leasing providers contracted under the applicable SOAs, and ensuring employees have access to all of the Queensland Government approved benefit items (but no others).”
The ten contracted novated leasing providers are Alliance Leasing, Easifleet, FAA Sal Pac, FleetPlus, LeasePLUS, Positive Salary Packaging, Remuneration Services (RemServ), Salary Packaging Australia, Smartleasing and Statewide Novated Leasing. millarX is not among them, and we are not going to suggest there is a way around that for an employer the circular binds.
Who this binds — and who it does not
The obligation is on the agency, and the circular draws one express exception:
“Government-Owned Corporations (GOCs) may at their discretion participate in the applicable SOAs.”
So a Queensland GOC is not required to participate — it chooses. If you work for one, the question of whether you can arrange your own finance is a question for your own employer, not one this circular settles. Queensland local councils are a separate matter again: they are not Queensland Government departments or agencies, and this circular does not cover them at all.
What the circular says about the finance itself
Worth reading, because the circular describes the same split this site is built on:
“In a novated lease, the novated leasing provider sources a vehicle for the employee who enters into a finance lease with a financier to lease the car.”
The panel is a panel of novated leasing providers. The financier is described as a separate party the employee enters a finance lease with. We are flagging that because it is in their document, not because it is a loophole — the contracted providers arrange the finance as part of the service, and nothing in the circular gives an employee of a bound agency a right to direct the financier. If you want to test it, the question below is the one to ask.
The same restriction, in what the employee signs
The circular binds the agency. The Salary Packaging Participation Agreement published by RemServ — one of the two administrators contracted under the arrangement — puts the same restriction directly on the employee, as a term of the agreement they sign:
“The Employee may salary package a Novated Lease only through the Novated Leasing SOA.”
That is worth knowing before you spend time on quotes. It is a contractual term you agree to, not a preference applied informally by a consultant, and it is the clearest statement of the position on either side of the arrangement.
The same clause carries one exception, and it is a useful one if it applies to you:
“For the avoidance of doubt, those novated leases that were on foot through a non-panel service provider prior to the commencement of the Novated Leasing SOA may continue until the novated lease cessation date.”
So an externally financed lease already running before the arrangement commenced on 1 March 2024 is not unwound by it — it runs to its cessation date. If you are in that position you do not need to do anything.
What is actually worth doing
Two things. First, check which category your employer is in — a GOC and a department are in genuinely different positions. Second, if you would rather have a choice of financier, say so: arrangements like this get reviewed, and the number of employees asking is the thing that gets them reviewed. We count those requests and we approach employers with them.
If you are not certain which category your employer falls into, this is the question to put to HR or payroll:
“Is our organisation required to fully participate in the Queensland Government Standing Offer Arrangements for salary packaging administration (QGP0065-21) and novated leasing services (QGP0066-23), or do we participate at our discretion as a Government-Owned Corporation? If participation is discretionary, can a novated lease where the employee arranges their own finance be administered?”
If the answer is that participation is discretionary, we can almost certainly help — send us the reply. If it is that your employer is bound, that is worth knowing too, and we would still like to record that you asked.
Source: Queensland Government Circular C2-24 — Arrangements for salary packaging from 21 June 2024.
For government (Queensland Government). The current circular, superseding C2-22. Carries the participation requirement, the Government-Owned Corporation exception, the two Standing Offer Arrangements and the list of ten contracted novated leasing providers. The landing page is cited rather than the PDF because the PDF path has moved with each revision.
Source: Queensland Government — Employee services procurement arrangements.
Queensland Government Procurement’s own page for the two arrangements, listing the contracted suppliers and the requirement to hold a salary packaging administration account in order to establish a novated lease.
Source: RemServ — Salary Packaging Participation Agreement.
The agreement a participating employee signs. Carries the clause restricting novated leases to the Novated Leasing SOA, and the provision preserving leases already on foot through a non-panel provider before the arrangement commenced.
Already holding a bundled quote? Prove it against ours.
Drop the quote in and we'll line up every contracted dollar against a millarX BYO lease —
in plain English, no email needed to see the result.
Compare your quote.
People who BYO'd and kept the difference
I cannot speak highly enough of the team at MillarX, and the founder Ben. Like a lot of people, I was locked into a particular novated leasing company as dictated by my employer. The car finance portion of the contract they offered did not look competitive compared to other options. I thought that I just had to accept it and look at the savings in income tax as a bonus to offset the fact the finance portion of the arrangement was not as sharp as some other lenders. A work friend put me on to MillarX, and all the info they have on their website about BYO finance. The staff I spoke to at the novated leasing company were either willfully opaque or perhaps just woefully ill informed, but three different people I spoke to made it sound like that was NOT an option, but Ben explained it all to me and once I understood, I had the confidence to call back and insist I speak with someone about the BYO finance option. Ben saved us over $10k in repayments on the car loan over 5 years!! Ben is very patient, transparent and aims to make you feel informed and empowered to make smart choices. Do not accept a terrible interest rate out of the gate from a novated leasing company — find out if you can BYO finance, and make sure you contact Ben for a quote.
Fleur Bedford — 5-star Google review
GOATed novated leasing experience. Full transparency, no pushy sales tactics, and reasonable rates. Can't thank the team enough for sorting out my NL in 2 business days. Incredible.
Hudson Yao — 5-star Google review
Fair questions
Is BYO finance actually allowed under my salary package?
Yes. Salary packaging rules govern how the lease is administered, not who provides the finance. Administrators package externally-financed leases routinely.
Is a self-managed novated lease the same as BYO finance?
Yes. Self-managed, BYO (bring your own) finance, finance-only, employee-arranged and externally financed all describe the same arrangement: you source the finance on the car and your existing salary packaging administrator continues to run the deductions. The business that arranges that finance for you is sometimes called a third party introducer — that is the role millarX plays, as a credit assistance provider under its own Australian credit licence. Providers differ over which word they use, so being told they do not offer one of them is often a vocabulary mismatch rather than a policy. If one term is not recognised, ask again using another.
Can Queensland Government employees choose their own novated lease financier?
Generally no, if your employer is a Queensland Government department or agency. The current salary packaging circular requires that all Queensland Government departments and agencies, including Statutory Bodies and Statutory Authorities other than Government-Owned Corporations, “are required to fully participate in the SOAs”, and that this “includes using services of the salary packaging administration suppliers and novated leasing providers contracted under the applicable SOAs”. Ten novated leasing providers are contracted under Standing Offer Arrangement QGP0066-23, and a lease arranged outside that panel is not contemplated. Government-Owned Corporations are the express exception — they “may at their discretion participate” — and Queensland local councils are not covered by the circular at all.
Is millarX an approved Queensland Government novated leasing provider?
No. The ten providers contracted under Standing Offer Arrangement QGP0066-23 are Alliance Leasing, Easifleet, FAA Sal Pac, FleetPlus, LeasePLUS, Positive Salary Packaging, Remuneration Services (RemServ), Salary Packaging Australia, Smartleasing and Statewide Novated Leasing. millarX is not on that panel. If you work for a Queensland Government department or agency bound by the circular, we cannot arrange your novated lease, and we would rather say so than take you through a quote you cannot use.
I already have a self-managed novated lease as a Queensland Government employee. Do I have to unwind it?
No, if it was already running before the Novated Leasing Standing Offer Arrangement commenced on 1 March 2024. The Salary Packaging Participation Agreement published by RemServ states: “For the avoidance of doubt, those novated leases that were on foot through a non-panel service provider prior to the commencement of the Novated Leasing SOA may continue until the novated lease cessation date.” So an externally financed lease that predates the arrangement runs to its cessation date and you do not need to do anything. It is the new lease, not the existing one, that the restriction applies to.
I work for a Queensland Government-Owned Corporation or a Queensland council — does this apply to me?
Not automatically. The circular states that “Government-Owned Corporations (GOCs) may at their discretion participate in the applicable SOAs”, so a GOC decides for itself rather than being required to participate. Queensland local councils are not Queensland Government departments or agencies and the circular does not cover them. In both cases whether you can arrange your own novated lease finance is a question for your own employer, and it is worth asking rather than assuming the State arrangement applies to you.
Will my administrator push back?
It's business as usual for them — we hand over the documents in the format they expect, and we deal with them directly so you don't have to.
Does anything change for payroll?
No. Your pre-tax deductions, running-cost budgets and reporting all continue through your administrator exactly as before.
What if I leave Queensland Government?
Same as any novated lease — the finance travels with you. You can re-novate with a new employer or continue repayments directly.
I work part-time / casual — does this still work?
If you're eligible for salary packaging with your employer, you're eligible to BYO the finance. The saving works the same way.
Where does the saving come from?
The finance bundled into a novated quote usually carries a margin on top of the lender's rate. BYO replaces that finance with a transparent millarX loan on the same car and the same term — the management side of the lease is untouched.
Ready to keep the difference?
Request a BYO finance quote — we'll price the car you're looking at and show you exactly
what to hand your Queensland Government administrator.
enquiries@millarx.com.au · 1800 498 500 · ABN 15 681 267 818 · ACL 569484