Foreign investment into residential real estate and agriculture

The Government has released an Options Paper for reforms to Australia’s foreign investment framework for residential real estate and agriculture, including the establishment of a small, specialised compliance and enforcement area within the ATO to identify and investigate breaches, introduction of an application fee on all foreign investment proposals and a range of new civil and criminal penalties for foreign investors and third parties who breach the rules. The definition of “agribusiness” for the purposes of a proposed new $55 million screening threshold for foreign investment in Australian agribusiness is also considered in the paper. Submissions can be made until 20 March 2015.