Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Australia's Future Made in Australia package, announced in the 2024-25 Federal Budget on 14 May 2024, commits A$22.7bn over 10 years to position Australia as a preferred supplier in the global clean-energy and critical-minerals supply chain. The two flagship production tax incentives are: (1) the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive (10% of eligible processing and refining costs for 31 critical minerals) and (2) the Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive (A$2 per kg of eligible renewable or low-emissions hydrogen, 2027-2040). A National Interest Framework administered by DISR determines which investments qualify. The framework act established a Future Made in Australia Coordinator and consolidated existing industrial-support vehicles (NAIF, EFA) under a single policy lens.

Act No. 9 of 2025, given Royal Assent on 14 February 2025, enacts the two production tax credits announced in the May 2024 Future Made in Australia package. Schedule 1 creates the Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive (HPTI): A$2/kg refundable tax offset for eligible renewable hydrogen produced with emissions intensity below 0.6 kgCO2e/kg H2. Schedule 2 creates the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive (CMPTI): a refundable 10% tax offset on eligible processing and refining expenditure for the 31 minerals on Australia's Critical Minerals List. Both offsets apply to production occurring between 1 July 2027 and 30 June 2040, capped at 10 years per project, administered by the ATO via new Divisions 419 (CMPTI) and 421 (HPTI) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

Released 9 May 2024 by the Minister for Resources Madeleine King through the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, the Future Gas Strategy is Australia's first national-level gas-policy framework, explicitly committing gas to a continuing supply role "through to 2050 and beyond" in support of the net-zero transition. The Strategy is built on six guiding principles -- gas must remain affordable for Australian users during transition, reliable supply requires new sources, emissions from production and use must be reduced, gas exports remain critical to global decarbonisation pathways, competitive gas markets are essential, and collaboration is needed to deliver these objectives -- and is paired with a separate Future Gas Strategy Analytical Report. It sets the Commonwealth policy posture for all subsequent LNG-export approval decisions (Northwest Shelf, Beetaloo, Scarborough), east-coast domestic-supply policy (including the AEMO gas-statement-of- opportunities forecast and any future domestic-reservation intervention), and Australia's international posture on long-term LNG offtake renewals with Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

The Defence Trade Controls Amendment Act 2024 (C2024A00021) received Royal Assent on 8 April 2024 and created three new criminal offences in the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012: section 10A (supply of Defence and Strategic Goods List technology in Australia to a non-exempt foreign person); section 10B (secondary supply of DSGL Part 1 Munitions or Part 2 Dual-Use Sensitive/Very Sensitive goods or technology outside Australia when originally exported from Australia); and section 10C (provision of DSGL Part 1 services to foreign nationals outside Australia). All three offences carry maximum penalties of 10 years imprisonment or 2,500 penalty units (~A$782,500), or both. The offence framework commenced 1 September 2024 with a six-month compliance-transition period; criminal liability attached from 1 March 2025. The Act also codifies AUKUS-partnership exemptions, carving out supplies to and from citizens and permanent residents of the United Kingdom and United States, underpinning the licence-free trilateral technology-transfer environment sought under AUKUS Pillar 2.

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Act 2023 (Act No. 12 of 2023, Cth) received royal assent on 11 April 2023 and established the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) as a corporate Commonwealth entity under the PGPA Act 2013, formally constituted on 18 September 2023. The Act commits A$15 billion of concessional finance (loans, equity and guarantees) to projects in seven declared priority areas: renewables and low-emission technologies; medical science; transport; value-add in agriculture, forestry and fisheries; value-add in resources; defence capability; and enabling capabilities (advanced manufacturing, AI, robotics, quantum). The NRFC predates and underpins the 2024 Future Made in Australia package -- it is the equity/loan-finance instrument of the Australian industrial-policy stack, distinct from the FMIA umbrella framework and from the FMIA Production Tax Credits Act 2024 (the tax-credit instrument).

On 4 April 2022 Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs registered the Autonomous Sanctions (Export Sanctioned Goods—Russia) Amendment (No.1) Designation 2022, made under the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011. It amended the existing Export Sanctioned Goods—Russia designation to add further categories of goods to the list of items whose export, supply or transfer to Russia is prohibited, extending an export-ban regime introduced in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It took effect on registration.

Australia designated aluminium ores (including bauxite), alumina and aluminium hydroxide as "export sanctioned goods" for Russia under the Autonomous Sanctions (Export Sanctioned Goods -- Russia) Designation 2022, banning their export from Australia to Russia effective 20 March 2022. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the measure a day earlier as part of Australia's response to the invasion of Ukraine, framing it as an attack on Russia's aluminium industry, which sourced roughly 20% of its alumina from Australian supply. Rusal, Russia's dominant aluminium producer, was identified as the primary target.

The Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Ukraine Regions) Regulations 2022 (F2022L00179) apply to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk the autonomous sanctions measures already in place for Crimea and Sevastopol, commencing 28 March 2022. DFAT describes the measures as prohibiting trade in the transport, energy, telecommunications, and oil, gas and minerals sectors of those regions. Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced Australia's response on 24 February 2022, alongside listings of Russian individuals and banks.

On 22 July 2021, Australia's Minister for Industry, Science and Technology announced an AUD 14.8 million Modern Manufacturing Initiative grant to Lynas Rare Earths for a new Rare Earth Carbonate Refining Circuit at its planned Kalgoorlie, Western Australia processing facility. The published GrantConnect award record (GA200152, approved 16 June 2021) lists the contracted grant value to recipient Lynas Kalgoorlie Pty Ltd at AUD 15,618,958.30 (GST inclusive). The process reduces chemical consumption and processing cost for refining ore from Lynas's Mt Weld deposit onshore in Australia, reducing reliance on Chinese midstream rare earth refining capacity.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Australia's government-owned green bank, approved a senior project finance loan of up to USD 47 million to Salt Lake Potash Ltd (ASX/AIM: SO4), part of a USD 138 million syndicated senior debt facility (alongside Taurus Mining Finance Fund No. 2) to build the Lake Way sulphate-of-potash (SOP) brine project near Wiluna, Western Australia. The facility funds construction of Australia's first greenfield SOP brine operation, part-powered by a 5MW solar farm and 2MW battery, targeted at cutting SOP production emissions by more than 30% versus conventional non-brine methods.

The Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 (Cth Act No. 38 of 2011; assented 12 April 2011, commenced 6 December 2011 with the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011) is Australia's foundational parent statute enabling the entire autonomous sanctions regime — economic and travel measures imposed unilaterally by Australia independently of UN Security Council mandatory obligations. The Minister for Foreign Affairs may, by legislative instrument, impose targeted financial sanctions, travel bans, and vessel-dealing prohibitions on designated persons, entities, and vessels. As of 2026 the Act underpins Australia's autonomous sanctions programs against Russia, Iran, DPRK, Myanmar, Belarus, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Libya, Ukraine (occupied territories), and other regimes, and was materially extended in December 2021 to authorise Magnitsky-style thematic human-rights and corruption sanctions. Structurally peer-foundational to the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 (SAMLA), Canada's Special Economic Measures Act 1992 (SEMA), Japan's FEFTA sanctions provisions, and the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument — the ASA 2011 completes the G7+AU sanctions-parent-statute set in the IPTM register.