Cormann claims vindication on FOFA
The Minister for Finance and Acting Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann claims to have been vindicated by the work of the ABC Fact Checking unit which found claims that by the shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, about Government's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes were "scaremongering".
Commenting on the findings of the ABC Fact Checking unit, Cormann said the Government had always said that Labor was engaged in dishonest scaremongering when it came to the important and necessary improvements to Australia's financial advice laws that it had put forward.
"There is no doubt that Labor's FOFA changes in government went too far and have to be corrected," he said. "Labor's FOFA imposed too much unnecessary and costly red tape hurting consumers by pushing up the cost of advice and lessening competition in the financial advice market."
"We have always been very clear that contrary to Labor's false assertions we would keep the requirement for advisers to act in the best interest of their clients in place and that we would not be re-introducing commissions for financial advisers," Senator Cormann said.
He said the Government's objective was "to restore a more appropriate balance between important consumer protection provisions and making sure access to high quality advice remains available and affordable for all".
The ABC Fact Checking unit found that Bowen's claim that the Government's FOFA changes would see the return of commissions that encouraged advisers to recommend risky investments, was incorrect.
The ABC's Fact Check team found that commissions would only be paid to advisers for general advice, when a client's objectives, financial situation and needs were not taken into account.
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