AUSTRALIA: Major Reforms to the Foreign Investment Review Framework

Tuesday August 11 2020

The Australian Government published a consultation seeking stakeholder views on the exposure draft of the Foreign Investment Reform (Protecting Australia’s National Security) Bill 2020.

The exposure draft Bill gives effect to the major reforms to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 announced on 5 June 2020. The reforms update Australia’s foreign investment review framework in three broad ways: addressing national security risks, strengthening compliance and streamlining investment in non-sensitive businesses.

The exposure draft Regulation will be released in two parts. The consultation schedule for each measure is set out in the Implementation Roadmap.

Exposure Draft Legislation – The exposure draft Bill includes provisions for the new national security powers – including the call in and the national security last resort power – integrity and technical amendments, and provisions to improve compliance and enforcement. The Government is committed to extensive public consultation to inform the final design of the Bill before its introduction to Parliament in the spring sitting.

Exposure Draft Regulation (Definition of National Security Business)

The first part of the draft amendments to the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Regulation 2015 provides the details of the definition of national security business. The remainder of the exposure draft Regulation, including the time limit for the call in power, streamlining measures (including investor exemption certificates) and other technical amendments, will be released separately in September for consultation.

Click on the link for further information.