Following the public consultation of the exposure draft of the Foreign Investment Reform (Protecting Australia’s National Security) Bill 2020 from 31 July 2020 to 31 August 2020, the Government is seeking stakeholder views on the exposure drafts of the Foreign Investment Reform (Protecting Australia’s National Security) Regulations 2020 (Exposure Draft Regulations) and the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Regulations 2020 (Exposure Draft Fees Regulations).
The Exposure Draft Regulations and Exposure Draft Fees Regulations give further effect to the major reforms to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 announced on 5 June 2020. All reform measures as set out in the Implementation Roadmap have been released for consultation.
Implementation Roadmap - PDF 1MB
Implementation Roadmap - DOCX 76KB
Exposure Draft Regulations
The Exposure Draft Regulations include the remainder of the regulations, namely on the time limit of the call in power, streamlining measures (including the increased range of exemption certificates and the passive investor measure) and integrity and technical amendments.
The Exposure Draft Regulations also provides for the reinstatement of the monetary thresholds which have been reduced to nil following the temporary measures announced by the Treasurer on 29 March 2020 in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The Government is committed to extensive public consultation to inform the final design of the Regulations.
Further details are contained in the Explanatory Statement.
Exposure Draft Regulations (Protecting Australia’s National Security) - PDF 504KB
Exposure Draft Regulations (Protecting Australia’s National Security) - DOCX 161KB
Explanatory Statement - PDF 602KB
Explanatory Statement - DOCX 55KB
Exposure Draft Fees Regulations
The amendments to the Fees Imposition Regulations outline the fees for giving notice of a notifiable action or notifiable national security action, for actions that are neither notifiable nor significant, for notices of national security reviews, circumstances relating to certain significant actions and actions contrary to national security, variations and exemption certificates.
Further details are contained in the Explanatory Statement.
Exposure Draft Regulation (Fees Imposition) - PDF 572KB
Exposure Draft Regulation (Fees Imposition) - DOCX 229KB
Explanatory Statement - PDF 400KB
Explanatory Statement - DOCX 78KB
Consultation
We are calling for interested stakeholders to submit views and feedback to FIRBStakeholders@treasury.gov.au before 11:59pm on 2 October 2020.
Treasury will host an online public information session, and we welcome stakeholders to register your interest to attend.
| Date | Time | Topic | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday 29 September 2020 | 11.00am-12.00pm | Foreign Investment Regulation Reforms - Information Session #1 | Register closed |