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Trusted foreign investors would be able to sink their cash into the country automatically under a planned overhaul of overseas investment rules that Treasurer Jim Chalmers says will help make Australia the global destination for footloose capital.
In a speech to be delivered today, Chalmers will announce a second round of foreign investment reforms, on top of changes announced last year that toughened regulations around parts of the economy considered “sensitive” while easing restrictions in other sectors.
Chalmers will say the government is looking to ensure lower risk foreign investments into Australia are approved more quickly, while applying more scrutiny to overseas investments in sensitive parts of the economy.
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This will include consulting on a new process where “trusted” investors can automatically receive the green light.
After the government’s economic roundtable in August, Chalmers said he had committed to seeing faster approvals for non-controversial investments before the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).
“Our goal is a FIRB regime that is much stronger where risks are high and much faster where risks are low,” Chalmers will say, according to a prepared speech.
“To further streamline the framework, we will consult on a new automatic approvals process. This would mean that low-risk actions from trusted investors would require notification but not sign-off, while retaining the power to review cases and call them in if we need to.”
Chalmers will speak today at a Citi event in Sydney where global investors from institutions with $29 trillion in assets under management are gathering.
The treasurer will tell the event that the government wants Australia to be “the destination where global investment flows first and grows fastest”.
“When you reconsider and redeploy the capital you manage, our objective is for Australia to be the most obvious and most compelling place to put it to work,” he will say.
