Trends In Foreign Investment In Australia

Foreign investment has always been an important feature of Australia's economic growth, but in the last twelve months, the messages to foreign investors looking to invest in Australia have been mixed. We look at the amended regulatory frameworks and discuss what investors should be aware of when investing in Australia.

In the last 12 months, legislative changes have been made to the foreign investment framework to simplify some parts of the process, and the monetary threshold for compulsory approvals has increased for a number of countries through free trade agreements. At the same time, application costs have been imposed, an agricultural land registry has been created and the Australian Government has shown a greater willingness to exercise its discretionary powers to reverse transactions and block investments not in the national interest.