The Coalition has called for the Government to issue a revised Regulatory Impact Statement as Parliament begins to debate the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) Bills.
Debate continues today after commencing in the House of Representatives late on Monday 19 March, with Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey moving a motion that the House postpone consideration of the Bills until the Government tabled a Regulatory Impact Statement for the Bills which had been assessed by the Office of Best Practice Regulation as compliant with its requirements.
The impact analysis was particularly poor in some of the crucial and contentious areas of regulation, including the opt-in and annual disclosure sections
“Perhaps the most damning aspect of this legislation is that it fails the government’s own tests for simplicity, transparency and regulatory impact,” Mr Hockey said in his address to the House.
“The executive director of the government’s own Office of Best Practice Regulation, Jason McNamara, said the impact analysis accompanying the legislation ‘was not at a standard that we would pass’. This is the government’s own internal adviser saying that the legislation was not at a standard that they would pass. The impact analysis was particularly poor in some of the crucial and contentious areas of regulation, including the opt-in and annual disclosure sections.
“The government must, as a matter of principle, withdraw this legislation until a full and compliant regulatory impact statement is submitted. This is the only option the government should consider.”
Mr Hockey was followed by a succession of MPs, each arguing along party lines. No Independent MPs have come forward to speak on the Bills at this stage.
Owing to time constraints, debate of the Bills was suspended on Monday evening, with continuation scheduled for the next sitting day. The debate resumed in the Federation Chamber today. At the time of publishing, only Coalition MPs had risen to speak about the Bills, making a strong case for the adoption of amendments recommended in the party’s dissenting report.
In related news, the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten, announced that the industry would have until 1 July 2013 to comply with the FoFA legislation (see: FoFA Compliance Delayed to 1 July 2013). The industry unanimously praised the Minister for his decision to extend the compliance deadline (see: Industry Praises FoFA Extension).
Also occurring last week was the tabling of the Senate Economics Committee (SEC) report on the FoFA Bills. The SEC made no significant recommendations to the Government in relation to opt-in, or the implementation timeline. The Coalition once again issued a dissenting report. (See: SEC FoFA Report Sheds No New Light)
