Posts in category: Updates

EMDG Old – Second Tranche Payout Rate Announced

As predicted in our last newsletter the second tranche payment for EMDG old has been announced this week, with the final payout figure set at 37.3 cents in the dollar.

This means that for clients who are owed more than $30,000, you will not get the full entitlement, but 37.3% of the balance you are owed.

Austrade tell us that the payments will be coming soon, in the next weeks or so – hopefully before 30^th June, but we cannot be 100% sure at this time.

We will be in touch with you to confirm your bank details as it happens.

EMDG New – Second Round for 2023 and Beyond

The opening date for the second round for 2023 and beyond has now been announced.

This only applies to new applicants who have not submitted an application/ received a grant offer for Round 1.

Applications will open at 9:00 am AEST on Wednesday 6 July 2022 for 6 weeks, closing at 4:00 pm AEST on Wednesday 17 August 2022.

We have already been in contact with some of you via a lengthy email before. We now ask that you send to us as best you can your Plan to Market and Expenditure Budget before 30^th June, so that we can be ready to go when the gates open in two weeks’ time.

If you have not already contacted us, please do so at your earliest.

Stuart and team.

Things have changed a bit since our last newsletter.

A change in government, a new trade minister, postponement of the 2023 EMDG round and rush of year processing/audit activity by Austrade for 2021 applications and 2022 grant offers.

More details on each follow:

New Trade Minister – the EMDG cheque writer

Senator Don Farrell is the new Trade Minister. Senator Farrell represents South Australia.

He was not the ALP trade spokesperson in opposition. He was however responsible for Tourism covered by Austrade the government agency which most would be aware administers the EMDG program which this newsletter is focused on.

Pre-election the ALP promised a mini review of the EMDG as it transitions from the old to new method of applying – in advance not in arrears.

We support the review. There are some big bugs to fix in EMDG for sure.

It will not mean more money into the program, nor a change in your existing grant offer amount that applies for this year and beyond.

The current method of applying is clunky and it has not delivered the upfront certainty as promised. It is now a three-step process and is simply not as effective or efficient in helping Australia’s export efforts as it should be.

Once the Minister announces the review terms – we will make submission on your behalf at that time.

EMDG Old – Applications for expenditure up to June 30^th, 2021

99% of these applications have now been processed. The remaining few applications will be processed post July 1.

EMDG old is therefore pretty much over, bar the “last drinks” shout – the timing and payment rate of the second tranche for grant entitlements greater than $30,000 – see comments below.

I am sad to see it go; it has served exporters very well over the years. Enough said.

EMDG Old – Second Tranche

The second tranche payment referred to above will be paid soon, maybe later this week, but will happen before June 30^th.

Once it happens, we will be in touch with you to confirm your bank account details as we have in the past.

You will not get your full entitlement.

My best guess is that the rate will be 20% to 30% of what you are owed.

Although Senator Farrell will determine the rate (write the cheque – push the EFT button) it is not of his doing that you will not be paid in full or receive a lower payout rate than you should, that rests solely with the previous Trade Minister. See our earlier newsletter “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

EMDG old therefore will not finish with a bang – high/full payout, it will finish on a whimper – a lower than expected payout rate, close to the worst on record.

EMDG New – First Round for 2022 and Beyond

This is the application lodged by us on your behalf before 30^th November 2021 – Step One.

About 90% of the applications have now been completed and clients have an executed Grant offer in place – Step Two.

Tier 1 clients and Tier 4 Representative Body clients have already been paid their 2021/2022 grant offer up front.

The next step for all – Step Three – is the submission of a Milestone report on what you accomplished and spent on marketing activities for the 2021/2022 year.

For Tiers 2 and 3 it will mean you are paid your grant offer based on your spend amount in fy21/22- so it’s all about providing the report to “show me the money”.

We have written to you already on an individual basis, so we can make a start on the reports on your behalf.

We can lodge the actual report from July, 1 via the Austrade portal. We are on to it.

EMDG New – Second Round for 2023 and Beyond

Austrade postponed the 2023 and beyond round in the week after the election. We support the delay.

There is no advice as to when the new round will open. It could be any day, so we are working on these applications as well. Again, we have written to you on an individual basis already.

Changes here at Mitchell and Co

Sophie is leaving our team to do bigger and better things.

Not too happy about it (just joking) as we are going to miss her a lot more than we are letting on!

We are excited for Sophie, as her new role is such a fantastic opportunity – too good to pass up for sure.

I will take over from Sophie in dealing with your applications, hopefully without stuffing things up too much.

Stuart and team.

EMDG Round 2 for 2023 and Beyond – Opening Date Delayed.

Last week, Austrade announced that the EMDG Round 2 lodgement period would open on Tuesday 31^st May for a 5 week period, closing on Tuesday 5^th July.

Things have now changed.

This is not going to happen.

Round 2 has now been delayed to a date in the future, yet to be advised. The reason being, which we support, is to give Austrade appropriate time to brief the new Government.

We were actually surprised that the original announcement was made in the week before the election in Government caretaker mode. Today’s advice is therefore good for exporters.

We remind you that this only applies to new applicants for 2022/2023 and beyond. There is no change to those clients who have already submitted an application/ received a grant offer for Round 1.

Austrade will advise you of the delay by direct email on Monday.

We will let you know the new opening date as soon as we have been advised.

Stuart and Team

Round 2 for 2023 and Beyond – Opening Date Announcement.

The second round of EMDG applications for the year ended June 30^th, 2023, and beyond will officially open on May 31^st, 2022.

Like the first round, there will be a short 5 week lodgement period, with the close date set as July 5^th, 2022.

This is for clients who: –

1. Indicated that they want to submit an application for expenses covering July        1^st, 2022 to June 30^th, 2023 onwards; and 
2. Did not lodge a 2022 application under the first round of the new program; or 
3. Declined the grant offer received under the first round of the new program.

If you have already lodged an application for 2022, you do not have to do anything.

If you think you fit into one or more of the three categories above, give us a call to confirm/discuss things.

Otherwise, we will be in touch in the coming weeks to get you ready for when the gates open on May 31^st.

Stuart and Team.

EMDG Old – Year ended June 30th, 2021 – the last of the old program.

Most applications have now been processed. We are tracking at 85% now processed and paid. We expect the rest to be completed before the end of June. There will be second tranche for payments greater than $30,000. The amount is unknown at this stage. It will not happen until the 3rd week in June.

EMDG New – Year ended June 30th, 2022 – the first of the new program.

Grant Offers for Tiers 2 and 3 are now happening – with over 50% now issued, this is a big improvement from the 5-10% some weeks back. We now expect all offers to be out by the end of this month.

Russian Sanctions – President Putin and EMDG.

What does President Putin have to do with EMDG, you ask?

Sanctions have been imposed by the Australian Government against Russia in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Australia will prohibit the supply, sale, or transfer of certain luxury goods directly or indirectly to, for use in, or for the benefit of Russia.

The sanctions, work both ways, not only imports from Russia to Australia, but also exports from Australia to Russia.

In Theory, for your EMDG application: –

1.    Per section 20 of the EMDG Act, any expenses in respect of products that the sale or export of would contravene Australian law are excluded under the Act.

For this reason any marketing or promotional expenses incurred on or after 7 April 2022 in relation to the export of goods covered in the Autonomous Sanctions (Export Sanctioned Goods—Russia) Amendment (No.1) Designation 2022 to Russia will no longer be eligible to be claimed under the EMDG scheme.

2.    In addition to the above, any expense incurred after 7 April 2022 relating to an otherwise eligible product being exported to Russia and/or Belarus will be deemed by Austrade to be detrimental to Australia’s trade reputation, and as such excluded as an eligible expense per rule 47 of the EMDG Rules. This means all goods and services are effectively excluded from EMDG support for applicable marketing costs incurred in relation to Russia and Belarus.

In Practice, for your EMDG application: –

·         If a business only markets to Russia and Belarus, Austrade will not enter (execute) into a Grant Agreement with you. You will be excluded from any EMDG support until further notice.

·         To access EMDG support, you will need to change your marketing efforts to different markets going forward.

·          Marketing expenditure up to April 7 incurred in relation to both Russia and Belarus is still claimable, it’s only costs after that date that are excluded for those markets.

·         If you already hold an executed EMDG Grant Agreement, expenditure for any promotional marketing activities related to Russia/Belarus incurred after 7 April 2022 will not be supported through the EMDG funding.

·         If you are exporting to other countries in addition to Russia and/or Belarus, grant funding for the eligible expenditure in those countries is still covered by EMDG.

If you have any questions, as always, feel free to contact us directly.

All the best,

Stuart and Team.

We got a second response from Trade Minister Tehan’s Chief of Staff, Mr Phil Connole, in relation to our follow up letter to Minister Tehan of 9th February.

The letter is attached below.

The response contains some more incorrect comments and assumptions about our advocacy on our clients’ behalf and about the type of work we actually do.

We did not get any answers to our three questions in our prior letter, only a “no decisions have been made as yet” response.

You can read the Response Letter here.

You might be wondering what Snoop Dogg and EMDG have in common?

Well, in our latest client newsletter, we talked a lot about RAP – in many different senses. In the case of this months discussion, RAP is a Homonym – a word with more than one meaning. It is also an Acronym, but this isn’t an English lesson.

Trust us, it will all make sense when you read on in our March EMDG Budget Update Newsletter, here!

EMDG life as we know it is changed forever. On 28th February we lodged our last EVER EMDG Application under the EMDG Old rules.

In our recent client Newsletter, we addressed the rumours flying around about the treatment of 2021 grant applicants in relation to the overdemand for the 2022 grant round (the first year of EMDG New).

In essence, it is a case of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” and it is simply unjustified.

We addressed the first round of 2022 grant offers flowing through, albeit slowly, and the question of “where to” from here?

We continue with our lobbying efforts to be an advocate for our exporters, as we know how precious your time is.

It is, after all, our experience that counts.

You can read all about it in our March Newsletter, here.

We got a response from Trade Minister Tehan’s Chief of Staff, Mr Phil Connole, in relation to our letter to Minister Tehan of 24th January.

The letter is attached below.

The response contains some incorrect comments and assumptions about why we write to the Minister in the first place.

We do so to advocate for our clients first and foremost, and to help the Minister do the best job he can. We are not just self-interested, as alleged by Mr Connole.

Incorrect statistics are also quoted with a lot of poetic license.

Stuart has not previously met with Mr Connole. He has now sought to do so.

You can read the Response Letter here.

February has sure come around quick.

We sent another Newsletter out to our client base addressing a few key points.

It’s a bit of a mixed bag, covering off on: –

• Another letter to the Trade Minister.
• EMDG 2021 – the last hurrah.
• EMDG 2022 – getting ready for the grant offer and advice on what to do next.

You can read all about it here!