Financial services reform fatigue an issue in 2012

The Federal Government has received yet another warning not to press too quickly towards achieving its superannuation and financial services reform agenda.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia superannuation expert Liz Westover has warned that with the amount of change occurring within the sector, there exists the danger of "reform fatigue" in 2012.

Canvassing the issue with ICAA members, Westover said she was concerned about the "sheer volume of work that is to come in the new year, combined with tight turnaround times provided by government for consultation".

She said this might result in poor implementation or outcomes that might not adequately meet the desired objectives of the reforms.

"For example, the accountants' exemption is due to be removed by 1 July 2012. With six months to go, we still don't know exactly what the appropriate replacement will be, which makes it very difficult for accountants to determine what actions they should be taking to prepare," Westover said.

"We need to be careful that we do not rush the next stages of the superannuation reforms for the sake of ticking them off the 'to do' list," she said. "We need to take the time for the right level of consultation, and where needed, allow appropriate transitional and implementation time frames."

"The last thing we need is to be back in a few years doing it all over again because we rushed it this time," Westover said.