Australia's Foreign Investment Approval Regime: A Practitioner's Point of View

Australia’s national interest is well served by having a foreign investment regime that has the right balance between flexibility and certainty. One highly successful aspect of that policy has been the ability to use conditional approvals to ensure that applicants behave in a manner that is consistent with the national interest. In the context of Treasury’s attempt to modernise the 40 year old foreign investment rules we consider the existing conditional approval regime be improved to reflect best regulatory practices and support ongoing investment.