The Queensland government could partner with multiple separate bidders for Virgin Australia, and is understood to be considering offering $200m to join any serious consortia that would guarantee the beleaguered airline remains headquartered in Brisbane.

It is understood that one of the leading possible bidders, Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management, has yet to settle on potential consortium partners and is open to joining with Queensland.

Guardian Australia has confirmed that Virgin Australia’s lead administrator, Vaughan Strawbridge, is expecting the field of potential owners to narrow dramatically, from around 19 interested parties to about eight, when preliminary bids are lodged on Friday.

The Queensland treasurer, Cameron Dick, has tasked the Queensland Investment Corporation to assess a potential investment by the state.

Queensland is not looking to buy the airline outright but could take a small, “strategic” stake in a future ownership structure, likely to be close to the $200m amount that the government previously offered as a bailout prior to Virgin being placed in administration.

NSW has also left open the prospect of investing in a reborn Virgin, which could provide an anchor tenant for a new Sydney airport to be built at Badgery’s Creek, but has not committed itself to bidding.

Virgin owes close to $7bn to creditors. It’s unclear what sort of price administrators are seeking for the company, but it is unlikely Queensland’s stake would be more than a minority one.

The state’s considerations include potentially offering a loan or guarantee.

Guardian Australian understands the QIC is open to joining multiple bids. Doing so would be based on conditions negotiated with each consortium, principally that the new owner agrees to maintain Virgin’s headquarters in Brisbane.

In addition to Brookfield, other leading bidders include a consortium led by private equity group BGH Capital, which is regarded by others circling Virgin Australia as a “team Melbourne” group.

Queensland is also motivated by concern about the need to maintain airline seat capacity and reasonably-priced airfares to many of its regional destinations to assist with local economic recovery.

Remote tourist destinations such as the Whitsundays and Cairns have suffered significant downturns due to coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions on travel. The tropical north Queensland tourism lobby estimates losses of about $2.5bn and 11,000 jobs this year.

While competition would also likely keep airfares competitive, a more significant consideration is the seat capacity created by multiple airlines offering similar routes.

In 2001, the year Ansett Australia collapsed, 42,000 passengers passed through the Whitsunday regional airport at Proserpine via major airlines. Last year, those numbers were up 1,200%.

Dick told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday the Queensland Investment Corporation had been asked to engage with Virgin’s administrators. He said the state wanted to partner with “serious players, not tyre kickers”.

“It’s not the intention of the Queensland government to purchase the airline in its entirety,” Dick said.

“But we want to take a strategic stake to preserve and protect jobs and to secure our interest.

“[QIC] have been instructed by me to work on a comprehensive strategy to ensure Queensland is in the best position to be a partner in a successful bid.

“They will advise government on the bid, the optimal partner group, the quantum and structure of any state contribution as well as probity and governance.

“The first indicative bids come out tomorrow. That will give us a much better idea of who is actually serious.

“We are also going to strike a hard bargain. We will strike a very hard bargain. They’re going to have to pay a very high price, because we need the best possible airline.”

Dick said the state’s priority was supporting as many of Virgin’s 5,000 jobs as possible and “ensuring our regional communities get the benefit of two national airlines”.

With Virgin continuing to bleed cash even though the majority of its 140 planes are grounded, Strawbridge has sought protection from personal liability for most of the airline’s debts as he runs a high-speed sales process designed to move the airline to new owners by early August.

Binding bids are due by 12 June and Strawbridge has told the federal court he wants to sign a deal by 21 June. This would then be put to a meeting of creditors in early August.

Queensland’s involvement in the bid process for Virgin has prompted an interjection into state politics by the federal home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, who told the ABC on Thursday the move was “a political stunt”.

“I don’t think they can seriously believe that they are a genuine bidder,” Dutton said.

“There is one of two things happening here. Labor is either in the midst of an election stunt and they are putting at risk millions of dollars in some phoney bid that they know is not going to be successful, just because they want to be patriotic.

“They have named it Operation Maroon – just a silly way the spin doctors have come up with a glib line for them to be running in Queensland media – that’s the first alternative.

“The second one is even more dangerous – that is, that they’ve decided as a state government to buy an airline in the midst of a pandemic, one of the biggest and most difficult downturns in the economy in a century.”

The Queensland LNP leader, Deb Frecklington, said the state should instead invest $200m in tourism marketing.

“It’s not the role of the government to bail out a bankrupt business and put taxpayers’ money at risk,” Frecklington said.

“The best way to save Virgin jobs is to get more tourists into Queensland as restrictions lift.

“The private sector will invest in Virgin – but the private sector will not invest in the unprecedented marketing blitz that Queensland needs.”

On Thursday, NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet did not answer directly when asked if the state was willing to take an equity stake in Virgin, but did not rule it out.

NSW was strongly supportive of having a second competitive airline and had engaged former Macquarie Group executive Michael Carapiet to represent the state with the administrators, Perrottet said.

He said the state had been talking about Virgin relocating to Badgerys Creek airport before the pandemic, and that it “makes sense” for them to become the anchor tenant there.

“We are certainly engaged in the process and monitoring opportunities as the administrators field offers and look for equity investment,” he said.