I am pleased to introduce the first Annual Report of the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets (the Report).
This report provides information from the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets (the Register) on Australian assets held by foreign persons (including temporary residents and entities with foreign ownership of 20% or more) as at 30 June 2024. The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (FATA) defines foreign persons and details registration requirements for those who acquire interests in specified Australian assets.
As the Accountable Authority for the Australian Taxation Office and Registrar of the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets, I am responsible for maintaining accurate records of foreign ownership and reporting annually to government on the operation of the Register.
The Register, which commenced on 1 July 2023, amalgamated the existing registers for agricultural land, residential land and water entitlements. It also expanded registration requirements to include commercial land, business interests and mining or production tenements and exploration tenements.
The Register supports compliance with Australia’s foreign investment framework, increases the government's visibility of foreign investments made in Australia, and informs future policy development by government.
The Report, which will be updated annually, provides transparency to the broader community on information collected by the Registrar and foreign ownership in Australian assets as at 30 June each year.
For agricultural land and water entitlements, the Register provides a complete picture of foreign ownership in these asset types. Details of foreign ownership of residential land have been collected since 1 July 2016, and provide insight into trends over time but do not provide a complete stocktake.
For assets introduced at the commencement of the Register (commercial land, business interests, and mining or production tenements and exploration tenements), information is only provided for the 12 months to 30 June 2024.
Over time, as more data is collected on residential land, commercial land, business interests, and mining or production tenements and exploration tenements, the Register will provide a fuller picture of foreign ownership in each asset type.
The ATO operates within strict privacy and confidentiality provisions. Information contained in the Register is protected and subject to the provisions of Division 355 of Schedule 1 of the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and Division 3 of Part 7 of the FATA. As such, the complete Register is not made publicly available, and the Report presents aggregated information providing a view of all registrations at a point in time. Consistent with Australia’s foreign investment framework, the details of specific registrations or investors are not made publicly available, and information which could identify, or be used to identify, an individual or entity is excluded from the report.
I would like to thank the other government agencies consulted throughout the Report’s development, including the Department of the Treasury, with whom the ATO co-administers Australia’s foreign investment framework, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Geoscience Australia and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.