AUSTRALIA’S fOREIGN RELATIONS (sTATE AND tERRITORY ARRANGEMENTS) amendment RULES 2025
Explanatory Statement
AUSTRALIA’S fOREIGN RELATIONS (sTATE AND tERRITORY ARRANGEMENTS) amendment RULES 2025
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Foreign Affairs
Introduction
The Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020 (the Foreign Relations Act) allows the Minister to assess whether arrangements between State/Territory entities and foreign entities are consistent with Australia’s foreign policy and do not adversely affect Australia’s foreign relations.
Section 54 of the Foreign Relations Act allows the Minister to make rules prescribing matters required or permitted by the Foreign Relations Act to be prescribed by the rules, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Foreign Relations Act.
The Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Rules 2020 (the Rules) prescribe:
- Certain kinds of foreign arrangements to be exempt arrangements
- Entities prescribed to be foreign entities
- Information to be included in notices to the Minister about negotiating core foreign arrangements
- Information to be included in notices to the Minister about entering core and non-core foreign arrangements
- Information to be included on the Public Register
- Transitional requirements for notification of certain foreign arrangements that were entered into before the commencement of the Foreign Relations Act (pre-existing arrangements).
Section 9 of the Rules also provides that they self-repeal on 10 December 2025. The Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Rules 2025 (the Amendment Rules) extend the operation of the Rules for 12 months.
A Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights (the Statement) has been completed in accordance with the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. The overall assessment is that the Rules are compatible with human rights. A copy of the Statement is at Attachment A.
Details of the Amendment Rules are set out in Attachment B.
Regulatory impact analysis
The Office of Impact Analysis (OIA) has been consulted in relation to the Rules. No Impact Analysis is required (OIA25-10439).
Consultation before making
The department is currently progressing reforms to the Foreign Relations Act consistent with the Government response to the Review of the Foreign Arrangements Scheme Final Report. Deferring the self-repeal by 12 months will allow sufficient time to implement the recommendations of the independent review and avoid the need to remake the Rules in their current form for a short period of time before the Rules are remade with amendments.
Given the minor regulatory impact of the Rules, State/Territory entities were not consulted on the Rules.
More information
The Foreign Relations Act specifies no conditions that need to be satisfied before the power to make the Amendment Rules may be exercised.
The Amendment Rules are a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003.
The Amendment Rules commence on the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislation.
ATTACHMENT A
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Rules 2025
This disallowable legislative instrument, the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Rules 2025 (the Legislative Instrument), is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (the Human Rights Act).
Overview of the Legislative Instrument
The Legislative Instrument extends the operation of the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Rules 2020 (the Rules) by deferring the operation of the self-repeal provision in section 9 of the Rules by 12 months from 10 December 2025 to 10 December 2026.
Human rights implications
The deferral of the self-repeal provision extends the operation of the Rules but does not change or affect the rights engaged under those Rules.
The Rules engage certain rights and freedoms declared by international instruments set out in section 3 of the Human Rights Act.
Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) prohibits unlawful or arbitrary interferences with a person’s privacy, family, home and correspondence. Any interference with this right must be for a reason consistent with the relevant Convention and reasonable in the particular circumstances, in order to avoid being ‘arbitrary’.
The Rules contain provisions that require the possible disclosure of personal information which engage the prohibition on arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy. They do this by prescribing information that must be included in notices to the Minister from State/Territory entities when negotiating or entering foreign arrangements.
To the extent that the Rules engage the right to privacy, any limitation on that right is permissible as it is in pursuit of a legitimate objective, is rationally connected to the objective, and is a proportionate way of achieving that objective.
The prescribed information to be notified is clearly set out in the Rules and is essential to the functioning and enforcement of the scheme established by the Act. The Minister is required to assess whether proposed arrangements would adversely affect Australia’s foreign relations or are inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy. In order to do so, the Minister requires information about the nature of the arrangement and the parties to it.
Accordingly, the Rules are compatible with human rights because, to the extent that they may limit privacy rights, those limitations are reasonable, necessary and proportionate.
Conclusion
The Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights Act, as it does not raise any human rights issues, and ensures that any proposal to make substantive amendments will be subject to parliamentary oversight and scrutiny.
Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Rules 2025
Senator the Hon. Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs
ATTACHMENT B
DETAILS OF THE AUSTRALIA’S fOREIGN RELATIONS (sTATE AND tERRITORY ARRANGEMENTS) amendment RULES 2025
Section 1
Section 1 provides that the name of the Rules is Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Rules 2025 (the Amendment Rules).
Section 2
Section 2 provides that the Amendment Rules commence on the day after registration on the Federal Register of Legislation.
Section 3
Section 3 states that the authority for making the Amendment Rules is taken from the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020.
Section 4
Section 4 gives effect to the amendments to the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Rules 2020 (the Rules) as described in the Schedule.
Schedule 1
Clause 1
This clause amends section 9 of the Rules to extend the self-repeal provision from 10 December 2025 to 10 December 2026.
Section 9 of the Rules was introduced following a recommendation of the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation to ensure appropriate parliamentary scrutiny of the Rules after the completion of the review of the Act as required under section 63A of the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020 (the Foreign Relations Act).
Ms Rosemary Huxtable AO PSM commenced an independent review of the Foreign Relations Act in June 2024. Her report, along with the Government response, was tabled on 1 September 2025. Amendments to both the Foreign Relations Act and the Rules are required to implement certain recommendations of the independent review.
Extending the self-repeal date in the Rules to 1 December 2026 will enable the current rules to remain in place until the Foreign Relations Act is amended in 2026, at which time amendments to the Act and the Rules will be implemented simultaneously.