EMDG February 2026 Newsletter
It’s that time of the year when everyone sends out their ubiquitous “Welcome to the New Year” newsletter to pump prime things and get past the holiday season.
I just go with the crowd, so here is one from us as well.
For myself it has been a slow start as I am recovering from a back operation, but now back in action and training for the New York Marathon… just kidding but feeling much better for sure. Wayne has also returned from his extended holiday break; you will start to see emails from him.
Round 4
We are now in full swing for Round 4 Milestone reporting preparation and lodgment.
We will see how Austrade’s new planned audit activity will unfold in the coming weeks.
Austrade has found some new money to offer grant agreements for 2025/2026 to all Tier 2 applicants lodged before the EMDG portal closed on November 12th, 2024. So, well done in that regard.
The milestone report requirements this year are more complicated and time-consuming with more supporting documents required as well.
These reports are all due by June 15 – yep, before the actual grant year ends.
The date was chosen not to help you, but to help Austrade only.
This is the first time in over 50 years of EMDG support that the lodgment date for applications/reports is not after the end of the grant year you are reporting upon, strange but true.
You can “pre claim” any expenditure for activity from June 16th to the 30th. You cannot carry it over to the next grant year.
You cannot pre-pay for any expenditure for the 2026/2027 financial year.
We do not write the rules we only report upon them.
Austrade seems to think you prepare and lodge your milestone report within one day. This is not the case. You need to get things done properly, it does take time, both for you and us.
You can only lodge before June 15th if you have spent double your grant entitlement already. We would think using expenditure up to May 31 to allow 14 days to process the data, answer the required portal questions and have all support documentation required ready to submit.
We have been reaching out to clients to review expenditure to date and see if your report can be lodged as soon as possible.
We are hopefully to get as many as we can lodged by Mid-May before the mad rush that we know will happen on June 15th.
Having said that, based on experience, Austrade may allow a short window past that date to lodge the milestone reports, but I would not guarantee it.
We remind you all again of all key pressure points for your milestone report.
A nil $ report – no expenditure will still count as usage of a grant year.
You must spend over $40,000 this year, up to June 15th (see comments above), to enable the minimum grant of $20,000 to be eligible for payment – representative bodies are excluded from this rule.
If you have been pre-paid $20,000 for 2025/2026, (payment received in June 2025), and your milestone report records less than $40,000 of expenditure, you will have to repay the $20,000 in full.
You can only claim economy class airfares or an equivalent percentage of paid business class costs.
- For Tier 2 – you must show in your report expansion of marketing activities, not just doing the same things as before.
- For Tier 3 – you must show both expansion and strategic shift in your export activities.
- For Tier 4 – representative bodies, you must show new activities undertaken.
If in doubt, shout out to us as soon as possible, so we can help you as best we can.
2025 EMDG Independent Review
There have been no updates on the review. We expect the report will be issued mid-year, it needs to be tabled in parliament first, so it depends on future parliament sitting dates – Autumn and Winter.
EMDG Round 5
No news here either, still expected to happen around November of this year, with some consultation and publicity of its rules in the months prior.
All the best,
Stuart & Wayne