Industry uproar over submission deadline

Industry bodies affected by the Financial Services Reform Bill (FSRB) are angry with being given just six working days to review the draft bill and the submissions deadline.

CPA Australia financial planning industry adviser Kathy Streeter said the process was appalling while the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) technical consultant Keith Reilly says the six day turnaround time was inadequate.

"Six working days are not enough. We want time to go through the bill and see what has been picked up and what hasn't," Reilly says.

The emotive response is due to the fact that the draft bill and explanatory memorandum number nearly 700 pages and the groups have had no time to consult with members.

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has also hit out at the lack of time available andlike the accounting organisations was busily working on submissions last week to have them ready by the Friday April 20 due date.

FPA public policy manager Con Hristodoulidis says the association was unimpressed with the restrictive timeframe, which limited the number of members who could be consulted.

"We need more time to go through the whole bill and would like to find any unintentional consequences of the draft before it becomes law. There are a couple of ongoing committees we have looking through the FSRB issues and we will be relying on input from them," he says.

Reilly says the ICAA will call for more time as part of its submission and request an extra couple of months to work through and clarify the bill.

He believes parliament has not allowed enough time for the industry groups to review the draft, for it to be of the most value to the entire industry as possible.

Corporate law adviser Rose Webb from the office of the Minister for Financial Service Joe Hockey says the deadline was not set by the government but rather by the Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities, which will receive the submissions.

"The Government wanted feedback by the time of the budget sittings but the actual timetable was set by the Committee," Webb says.

Webb says the date for submissions was set as last Friday as the Committee plan to hold a hearing this Friday at the Melbourne Town Hall, before referring the submissions back to the Government.

This is designed to allow the Government's response to submissions to be made available by the late May and introduced for debate into parliament in the budget sittings which begin on May 22nd for three days.

These will be followed by three weeks of sittings in June in which, Webb says, the debates should be concluded in both houses of parliament.

However the progress of the FSRB is still dependent on that of the Corporations Bill 2001, but Webb says both of the major parties support the latter bill and it should pass with little fanfare.