Australia’s foreign investment framework has entered a new era with an exciting digital project. In 2025, Treasury launched the Foreign Investment Portal, a fully centralised platform that now manages every stage of the FIRB process – from application to communication to compliance reporting. This IT project replaces the old mix of forms, emails and manual workflows, completing FIRB’s multi-year digital transformation program.

The new system is designed to streamline applications, reduce delays and give investors a more consistent and structured experience.

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Key Points

1. Treasury has launched a centralised Foreign Investment Portal for all lodgements and compliance reporting.
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2. All communication with FIRB now takes place within the portal – no more hard copy documents!
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3. Treasury’s latest statistics show processing times improving, with 52% of proposals approved within 30 days.

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Project Significance

The Foreign Investment Portal project marks a major shift in how Australia manages inbound investment. By consolidating everything into one digital channel, Treasury aims to deliver faster approvals, standardised data collection and more predictable outcomes for investors.

This comes at a critical moment. Stronger national security rules, growing compliance activity and shifting sectoral trends mean investors now face a more complex FIRB landscape. The new portal is designed to replace administrative friction with clarity and structure, helping prevent delays.

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Further Details: A Streamlined FIRB Experience

The platform uses dynamic forms that guide applicants through a sequenced set of questions tailored to the specifics of each transaction. This front-loads key investor, transaction and target details, significantly reducing the need for Treasury to request additional information after lodgement.

Investor profiles can be saved and reused across applications and compliance reports, while all reporting must now be filed through the portal.

Treasury’s most recent data shows improving performance: median approval times for commercial proposals fell to 29 days in the December 2024 quarter. Voluntary notifications – especially for national security actions – also increased, reflecting stronger investor awareness of the expanded national security framework introduced in 2021.

Overall, FIRB’s digital transformation delivers a more structured, predictable and transparent process – one that investors will need to understand as the regulatory environment continues to evolve.