This audit would examine IP Australia’s management of the implementation of the Rights In One program.

Online transactions account for around 97 per cent of IP Australia’s customer transactions. This means that information and communications technology (ICT) systems are central to the organisation’s intellectual property rights management work. In this context, IP Australia has commenced a large, multi-year ICT project—the Rights In One program. This project involves the development of a new system to manage IP Australia’s rights administration workflow across patents, trademarks, designs and plant breeders’ rights. It is expected to allow IP Australia to streamline its ICT operations and retire a range of legacy systems, thus delivering efficiencies and enhancing productivity. IP Australia has reported that, in 2015–16, it completed the build of the first component—the administration system for designs.

This audit would examine whether the administration of assistance provided under the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is protecting the Australian Government’s financial interests and providing value for money.

The 2015–16 Budget announced that a $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility would be established to provide concessional loans for the construction of major infrastructure such as ports, roads, rail, pipelines, and electricity and water supply. It was intended that the facility would increase private sector investment in infrastructure in northern Australia. Key elements of the governance arrangements are as follows:

• The NAIF Board is responsible for all decision-making in relation to concessional finance. It is supported by the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation for origination, execution and administration functions via a service level agreement.
• Concessional financial assistance to be funded by a special appropriation, attributable to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science as the accountable authority.
• A master facility agreement to provide a contractual arrangement between the Commonwealth (represented by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science), the NAIF and the states, for the provision of the concessional financial assistance. This is to enable each of the states to provide concessional finance (such as loans or guarantees) to the project proponents as a pass-through arrangement, and to collect repayments for onforwarding to the Commonwealth.

In October 2016, the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia announced that more than 70 enquiries about project funding had been received, with one project undertaking due diligence and another 13 working towards a formal investment proposal. The minister stated that these projects represented a total investment of over $10 billion, but that not all would receive assistance and other projects proposals were still encouraged.