$4 billion in foreign investment flagged for security concerns

Treasury figures released days after the government launched consultations on rules forcing foreign governments to register local acquisition plans show 741 offshore investments worth more than $107 billion were approved in the six months to December, almost half of which were subject to conditions.

But the government does not reveal the nature of security concerns raised by many investments and how they were resolved, prompting calls for much greater transparency in Treasury reporting.

According to the Treasury data, the bulk of proposals (337 investments worth $28.2 billion) came from the United States, followed by Canada (214 investments worth $10.5 billion), Singapore (145 investments worth $10 billion), China (105 investments worth $8.4 billion) and the United Kingdom (103 investments worth $1.8 billion).

The biggest target for foreign investors was commercial property, with 257 acquisitions worth $34.5 billion, then services (220 investments worth $22.3 billion), finance and insurance (45 investments worth $18.5 billion) and manufacturing, electricity and gas (100 investments worth $18.3 billion).

Chinese investors were particularly active in residential property. Of 3196 acquisitions worth $4.3 billion approved in the housing market in the second half of 2022, more than a third came from China.

Often the most politically sensitive transactions involve investments in mining projects or the acquisition of farming land, and the Treasury figures show there were 101 investment proposals worth $6 billion in agriculture and 64 proposals worth $6 billion in mineral exploration and development.

Under reforms introduced two years ago to tighten security oversight of foreign investments, 28 proposals worth $2.4 billion were scrutinised and approved in the December quarter, though Treasury did not provide details of the nature of the acquisitions involved or any conditions imposed.

The report on offshore investments comes as the government has called for submissions on its plan to force some types of investors and acquisitions to be registered.

Under proposed Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets regulations, foreign individuals investing in Australian media and foreign government investors in businesses, tenements or who acquire 10 per cent or more of mining, production and exploration entities must notify the government.

In a speech late last year Treasurer Jim Chalmers sketched the governments approach to foreign investment in critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt.

Dr Chalmers said the government "welcome[s] and encourage[s] foreign investment in critical minerals".

"But as investment interest grows, and as the sources of that investment interest grow, we'll need to be more assertive about encouraging investment that clearly aligns with our national interest," the treasurer said.

Dr Chalmers said there was a need to identify and consolidate data on critical mineral investment and develop "sophisticated methods" to track it.

But foreign investment expert, Holding Redlich partner Angela Flannery, was skeptical regulations to register investments would achieve much.

Ms Flannery said the Australian Communications and Media Authority already maintained a register of foreign investors with more than a 2.5 per cent interest in traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television.

She said the register was intended to provide transparency about foreign interests in the media but only partly met its objective because it did not include online publications.

Ms Flannery called for much more detailed reporting by Treasury and the Foreign Investment Review Board on how they assessed foreign investments, the decisions they made and trends they observed in investor interest.