Foreign Investment Overhaul to Prioritise ‘Trusted’ Partners Amid National Security Concerns

Foreign investment into Australia will be overhauled to preference trusted investors over those with higher security risks, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has revealed. The move is designed to lure funds for the recently announced Future Made in Australia Act, aimed at boosting local manufacturing and renewable energy development. Akin to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, it is mainly supported by taxpayer-funded incentives and tax breaks. Mr. Chalmers said the government was spending the same amount of time scrutinising both low- and high-risk foreign investment proposals, a situation the treasurer hopes to change. “What happens right now is the system gets more or less gummed up by spending a lot of time and resources on low-risk proposals. We want to spend more time, effort, energy, and resources on the higher-risk proposals in some of our critical industries,” he told Sky News Australia....