FOFA headed for Parliamentary inquiry
The Federal Opposition will attempt to have the Government's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation referred to a Parliamentary inquiry.
The move has come at the same time as the Opposition has accused Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Bill Shorten of being guilty of pressing ahead a "vested interests" agenda with the introduction to Parliament this week of the FOFA changes.
As well, Shorten has been accused of allowing legislation to be tabled in the House of Representatives that does not include a statutory best interest duty.
The Opposition spokesman on financial services, Senator Mathias Cormann, said the Government would have been better served sticking with the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee into financial services headed by Labor backbencher Bernie Ripoll.
He said this was because elements such as 'opt-in' were never part of the recommendations that flowed from the Ripoll Inquiry, which was set up after the collapse of Storm Financial and generated a bipartisan support.
"The truth is that Bill Shorten is conflicted when it comes to pursuing regulatory changes to the financial services industry," Cormann said.
He said the Coalition supported genuine reforms to the financial services industry that increased transparency, efficiency, competition and consumer choice, but it would not be supporting changes that made the current regulatory framework more complex and expensive for everyone.
"That is why the Coalition will not support Bill Shorten's push to force Australians to re-sign contracts with their financial advisers on a regular basis," Cormann said.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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