Consultation opens a new front door for investors into Australia

The Australian Government has opened stakeholder consultation for its proposal to establish a “Front Door for investors with major, transformational investment proposals”. The front door proposal forms part of the Government’s $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package announced in the 2024-25 Budget which aims to:

• encourage and facilitate private sector investment;
• maximise the economic and industrial benefits of the transition to net zero; and
• position Australia as a critical part of the global economy, securing its place in an evolving global economic and strategic landscape.

The Government has noted that significant amounts of private capital will be needed to achieve these goals which, in turn, requires improved coordination among various Government agencies and streamlined processes for investors. The front door proposal seeks to address these challenges by attracting and facilitating greater private capital investment particularly in major, transformational projects by focusing on four key areas discussed below.

Coordinated Government engagement

A key issue the Government is looking to remedy is the lack of clarity around which government agencies investors should engage with at various stages of their project. To address this, the Government intends to establish the front door as a first point of contact for significant projects that plan, or anticipate to have, various engagements with Government agencies. Services provided to investors at this centralised point of entry/contact may involve:

• provision of high-level guidance materials;
• connecting investors with relevant support programs; and/or
• access to more active case management services.

By providing these concierge-like services, the Government seeks to assist investors in identifying, connecting with and accessing the appropriate Government agencies and project development supports available to them with greater efficiency.

Regulatory facilitation

The consultation paper notes that the complex regulatory framework and slow approval processes in Australia have presented a significant barrier for potential domestic and international investors. The front door proposes to relieve this regulatory burden, similar to how it proposes to better coordinate government engagement - by providing discrete advisory and guidance services to investors with a centralised point of contact that will help them navigate Australia’s regulatory landscape. The proposed services may include providing investors with:

• project specific end-to-end mapping of the applicable regulatory requirements across all levels of Government;
• advisory services on sequencing considerations across approvals processes, monitoring timelines for approvals and status reporting of priority projects; and
• readily available concierge services to facilitate engagement with relevant regulatory bodies and assistance with the general navigation of regulatory approval processes.

The increased guidance and clarity afforded by this proposed model is expected to support the Government’s goals to simplify and streamline regulatory approval processes for investors.

Coordination of public financing

The Government is also looking to facilitate greater coordination between investors and public financing support where beneficial and appropriate. This proposal stems from the fact that investors may access public funds for co-investment through various competitive grant programs and specialist investment vehicles. Examples include policy departments such as the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Commonwealth Specialist Investment Vehicles (eg. the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation), agencies engaged in investment attraction as well as delivering direct services to foreign investors such as the Australian Trade and Investment Commission and regulatory support agencies including the Major Projects Facilitation Agency. Again, the front door would act as a central point of access to support services to assist investors to identify potential co-investment opportunities with public financiers.

Identifying and prioritising major, transformational projects

While all projects will be able to access general support services of the front door, fundamentally, the front door is focused on supporting major transformational projects which will, under the proposal, be provided with priority access to both general and additional tailored services. The consultation paper indicates that the assessment of which projects qualify as major and transformational under the proposal will likely depend on a multitude of factors including the scale and commercial viability of the project, the maturity of the proposal and its impact on advancing the Government’s strategic priorities. The assessment process, as currently proposed, appears to be on a case by case basis but the qualification criteria are up for consultation.