The Coalition intends to reverse opt-in and the proposed ban on super risk commissions if it regains power and has\u00a0vowed to fight the current proposed legislation\u00a0to ensure that those elements of FoFA it considers to be bad policy do not pass through the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Speaking at an AFA breakfast in Sydney last week, Senator<\/strong> Mathias Cormann<\/strong>, Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, said\u00a0the Coalition did not support the Government’s opt-in proposal, or the banning of risk commissions inside superannuation.<\/p>\n “Let me say upfront, the coalition supports changes to the regulatory framework that make the provision of financial advice more transparent and which improve choices for consumers and which make financial advice more competitive.\u00a0 What we will not support are changes that increase red tape, increase cost and reduce choice for consumers for no public benefit,” he said.<\/p>\n “We will not be supporting, for example, a requirement forcing consumers to re-sign contracts with their advisers on a regular basis,” said Senator Cormann, adding:<\/p>\n “Essentially these are private contractual agreements between advisers and their clients, and it’s not up to the government to tell us what we can and can’t do in that regard.”<\/p>\n “It feels as though the government doesn’t trust consumers to think about what is in their own best interest,” he said. \u00a0“The government is effectively saying to the consumer: ‘We’ve got to protect you from yourselves.”<\/p>\n Senator Cormann said the ban on risk commissions inside superannuation would create another distortion in the market.\u00a0 He argued: “There is now an inherent incentive for people to be encouraged to take out risk insurance outside super, where they may not necessarily be able to pay for it.”<\/p>\n “The only reason that I’ve heard from Bill Shorten in relation to the banning of risk insurance commissions inside super is that people who structure their risk insurance inside super get a tax advantage.\u00a0 So what?\u00a0 Is this about increasing taxes or is this about pursuing reform that is supposedly there to prevent future collapses like Storm, Westpoint and Trio?\u00a0 We know it’s not the latter.”<\/p>\n The Senator accused Minister Shorten of “… looking after the vested interest of his friends in the industry super movement,” a comment that drew\u00a0a very positive response\u00a0from the audience attending the breakfast.<\/p>\n Senator Cormann continued, “Bill Shorten is intent on making Australia the world champions in red tape when it comes to financial advice,” the Shadow Minister said.\u00a0 “You tell me one jurisdiction anywhere in the world where the government forces consumers to resign contracts with their advisers on a regular basis.\u00a0 It is government intervention to a level unheard of anywhere in the western world.” \u00a0<\/p>\n The Shadow Minister said the Coalition would do whatever it could to convince the independents to vote against those elements of FoFA that are not in the clients best interest.<\/p>\n “Don’t think that FoFA as it currently stands is an inevitability.\u00a0 It isn’t.\u00a0 There is still a debate to be had in the parliament, and there is opportunity for us to improve what is currently a bad piece of legislation.<\/p>\n “Independents are that, independent.\u00a0 If you explain why something is bad for consumers and small business, and why it won’t actually fix the things it is designed to fix then you’ll find it will make people think.\u00a0 And all we need is one.”<\/p>\n Senator Cormann pledged that should the legislation be passed, and the Coalition is re-elected, it would repeal elements of the Labor policy.<\/p>\n “If the Government, against all of our best endeavours, manages to get the reforms through Parliament, obviously that is one of the things that we would look at dealing with when we get into Government,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Coalition intends to reverse opt-in and the proposed ban on super risk commissions if it regains power and has\u00a0vowed to fight the current proposed legislation\u00a0to ensure that those elements of FoFA it considers to be bad policy do not pass through the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-compliance-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riskinfo.com.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Bill Shorten is intent on making Australia the world champions in red tape<\/h6>\n
… tell me one jurisdiction anywhere in the world where the government forces consumers to resign contracts with their advisers on a regular basis<\/h6>\n