• continuing the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme to the end of the 2010-11 grant year and provide for a review of the scheme, with a report to the Minister of Trade by 30 June 2010
• increasing the claimable overseas visit allowance from $200 to $300 per day
• allowing Austrade to deem certain applicants eligible when they do not technically meet the Act’s current ‘principal status’ requirements
• modifying the scheme’s Australian origin rules so that (1) goods coming into their final form in Australia must be ‘made in Australia’ to be eligible and (2) for other goods to be eligible, Austrade must be satisfied that Australia will derive a significant net benefit from the sale of those goods outside Australia
• making applicants’ expenses eligible when they are incurred to increase the return on the disposal of intellectual property and know-how to a related company
• capping the amounts that can be claimed as expenses for overseas representatives at $200,000 per application and for marketing consultants at $50,000 per application, with each expense category claimed separately
• revising the rule covering changes in business ownership to make it clearer for applicants and easier to administer
• allowing Austrade to grant special approval status, including approved body status, for five years rather than three
• limiting the eligibility of cash payments to $10,000 per application
• clarifying Austrade’s power to disregard unsubstantiated, unreasonable, uncommercial or non-bona fide expense claims
• removing export earnings criteria from the calculation of grant entitlements
• ensuring that, as intended, commission payments remain ineligible for the scheme
• correcting minor errors in the Act
• repealing the Export Expansion Grants Act 1978