FOFA to remain unchanged as Govt shies away from fight
Planners should not expect any further changes to the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) legislation with the Federal Government unlikely to expend further political capital in championing the changes according to the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA).
Speaking at the GenXt National Roadshow in Sydney yesterday AFA chief operating officer Phil Anderson said the three attempts to have FOFA disallowed in the Federal Parliament last year was taxing on the Federal Government and had created negative media coverage around the legislation and the amendments.
He said the Federal Government was restricted by numbers in the Senate and had struggled with FOFA as well as other major policy initiatives such as the Federal Budget.
"This gives us context as to why expectations of significant change in our space have fundamentally changed," Anderson said.
"The government put a lot of political capital in play as far as the FOFA amendments and we have a lot of negative media coverage as a result of it."
"From this point going forward and in the context of this week's events in Canberra it would not be realistic for us to expect the government to put more political capital on the line."
Anderson did not rule out the possibility of changes to FOFA but said the financial services sectors would have to deal with both sides of Federal Parliament during 2015.
"What we can expect is changes will more than likely need the support of both sides of parliament to get things through. However there is no questions both sides are prepared to work on certain things and that remains our focus," Anderson said.
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