The closing date for submissions is 12 December 2025.
Australia’s Treasury has launched a consultation to further streamline and enhance the foreign investment framework reforms on 31 October 2025.
These reforms will aim to ensure that Australia remains an attractive destination for global capital, while managing new and evolving risks to the national interest and national security in an increasingly complex international security environment.
The proposed reforms will build on the policy and practice reforms announced by the Treasurer on 1 May 2024 and advance the objectives of the Economic Reform Roundtable to make the economy more productive and resilient.
In 2024, the Government announced policy and practice reforms to improve Australia’s foreign investment settings for investors, the national interest, and the economy. These reforms enhanced the framework’s risk-based approach to foreign investment by:
- Streamlining consultation and assessment processes to enable faster decisions on low-risk investment applications.
- Strengthening scrutiny of and dedicating greater resourcing to investment applications in sensitive sectors.
- Enhancing compliance monitoring and enforcement in these sectors to protect Australia’s national interest and security.
- Providing investors with more transparency on Australia’s investment settings.
Through the implementation of the 2024 reforms, the Government has made progress in streamlining and strengthening the framework. This includes:
Reducing processing times for investment proposals: Treasury has adopted a new performance target of deciding 50 per cent of proposals within 30 days from 1 January 2025, and meaningful progress is being made on this front. 52% of proposals were decided within 30 days in the second quarter of 2024–25, up from 37% in 2023–24 and 33% in 2022–23. Streamlining efforts will be further supported by a new online investor portal, which went live in May 2025.
Sharpening scrutiny of foreign investment proposals in sensitive sectors and strengthening compliance activities: Complex and sensitive proposals are being scrutinised appropriately, and compliance activities are being bolstered. On 26 June 2025, the Treasurer commenced action in the Federal Court of Australia in relation to an investor’s non-compliance with an order to dispose of shares in a critical minerals company.
Enhanced transparency and engagement with investors:This includes the release of an updated Foreign Investment Policy to provide clarity on how investment proposals are assessed and the areas in which investors should expect greater scrutiny to protect Australia’s national interest; and updates to Guidance Notes to support implementation of the Government’s policy announcements.
The deadline for submitting feedback is 12 December 2025.
