Terms and conditions of use

These terms and conditions govern how you use the Foreign Investment Portal.

When we say:

1. You and your – we mean you as the user of the Foreign Investment Portal
2. System – we mean the Foreign Investment Portal
3. AI – we mean Artificial Intelligence.

You are permitted to use the system to manage your personal details, submit certain notices, applications and reports, pay fees and apply for waivers, view your foreign investment information, track the status of your submissions and communicate with Treasury.

By using this system, you accept the following conditions:

1. The Commonwealth of Australia (the Commonwealth) excludes all liability for losses incurred because of any delay in giving, receiving, or failing to give or receive, a notice or application.
2. Treasury will take all reasonable steps to mitigate cyber related risks. However, you assume all risks associated with use of the system, including:
   1. the risk of your computer, software or data being damaged by malicious codes which might be transmitted or activated via the system, or your access to it;
   2. transmissions to and from this site being intercepted and modified by third parties; and
   3. loss of information because of equipment or power failures or our servers terminating your session due to prolonged periods of inactivity.
3. Your use of this system will be logged for the purpose of security and usage monitoring.
4. Unauthorised use of this system could result in criminal prosecution. You must not access the system if access has not been issued to you and/or if your access has been revoked. If your access has been compromised, you must notify Treasury immediately.
5. This system is hosted on a data centre in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). These terms and conditions of use are governed by the laws of the ACT and any dispute about these terms or the contents of this system is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the ACT.
6. Disclosing your account credentials (i.e. username and/or password) to someone else is a security issue and could result in your account being disabled. Treasury reserves the right to refuse access or terminate your account at any time.
7. When you are intending to leave your organisation permanently, or to move to a role that no longer requires access to this system, you must notify Treasury in writing to ensure that your account is disabled.
8. These terms and conditions of use are subject to change at any time without notice. Any changes to the terms and conditions of use will be announced on the foreign investment website. It is recommended that users check the terms and conditions of use to make themselves aware of any updates.
9. When you have finished using the system please remember to log out. Failure to do this may result in personal information being available to unknown third parties.

The Treasury may use an AI Tool to assist with the evaluation of your submission. Any use of AI will not be used to automate any decision-making component of the assessment. By entering the system, you consent to the Treasury’s use of any AI Tool for evaluation of your submission.

Privacy notice - collection and use of personal information

The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) is the key law designed to safeguard personal information collected by Government agencies. Commonwealth Government agencies (including the Treasury and the Australian Taxation Office) must comply with the Australian Privacy Principles in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act when collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information.

The Treasury's privacy policy can be found at Privacy | Treasury.gov.au and the Australian Taxation Office's privacy policy can be found at ATO privacy policy | Australian Taxation Office. These policies contain important information about your privacy, including information about how you can access and seek correction of information those agencies hold about you, how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how those agencies will deal with any privacy complaint.

Treasury will only collect personal information for activities undertaken in the performance of the Treasurer’s functions in relation to foreign investment, whether under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 (FATA), the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Fees Imposition Act 2015, Australia's Foreign Investment Policy, or other legislation. For example:

1. If you are an investor (or foreign person), the Treasury may collect your personal information when you make a foreign investment submission or application, or any submission or application is made by an agent on your behalf.
2. If you are an agent, the Treasury may collect your personal information when:
   1. you use the system to register as a new user, or submit, vary or withdraw a submission;
   2. another user nominates you as a secondary contact for a submission; and/or
   3. the Treasury consults with another government agency regarding a submission.
3. Personal information provided will be recorded and may be used and disclosed to assess a notice or application, as well as to assess compliance with foreign investment obligations. If this information is not provided, the notice or application may be of no effect and we may be unable to process the notice or application.

Information collected by Treasury, such as the information provided in a notice or application, will generally be protected information under the FATA. Protected information may be disclosed by the Treasury to the ATO and other government agencies for the purposes of assessing notices and applications and may be disclosed for any other purpose in the circumstances allowed for under the FATA.

Consistent with its protected information obligations under the FATA, the Government has appropriate security measures in place to protect commercially sensitive information.

Treasury takes all reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure or misuse. Our Privacy policy explains how we store and protect data and our Digital and Cyber Security Strategy 2024-26 describes our strategic priorities to ensure we remain responsive to digital challenges and opportunities.

We recommend that all users take proactive steps to safeguard their online security. The Australian Cyber Security Centre provides useful advice and information about protecting yourself online.

The Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) gives members of the public a general right of access to documents of an agency and official documents of a Minister, other than exempt documents.

The Treasury manages freedom of information requests on behalf of requests made in relation to the FATA. Details on how to make an application under the FOI Act can be found on the freedom of information page on the Treasury website.

Documents that have been released by Treasury in relation to the FATA under the FOI Act can also be found on the website.