Regulation Impact Statement – The Treasury
On 28 October 2020, the Australian Government introduced the Foreign Investment Reform (Protecting Australia’s National Security) Bill 2020, and the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Amendment Bill 2020.
These Bills include a package of reforms to ensure Australia’s foreign investment screening framework keeps pace with emerging risks and global developments, whilst maintaining Australia as an attractive destination for foreign investment. The Bills improve and update operation of the framework across national security, compliance monitoring and enforcement, and integrity, as well as streamlining requirements and making technical changes to improve operation of the law. The Imposition Bill also simplifies existing fee arrangements
The Department of the Treasury prepared and certified a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS), which the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) assessed as good practice. While the RIS addressed the seven RIS questions and followed an appropriate policy development process commensurate with the proposed intervention, it did contain a small number of elements that could have been improved. In particular, given the importance of foreign investment in Australia, the RIS could have provided a more fulsome picture of the total costs and benefits for each of the explored options. More detail is provided in link to the OBPR’s assessment advice to the Department of the Treasury below.
The RIS estimates the average annual regulatory costs to businesses and individuals to be an additional $1.5 million. A regulatory offset has not been identified
Given the significance of the reforms, a post-implementation review will be completed within five years of implementation.
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