Development of the Future of Financial Advice reforms could have been conducted more comfortably and independently within the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), but the ALRC has been stripped of its capacity to do so, according to the Rule of Law Institute of Australia (RoLIA).
The claim has come at the same time as the Federal Opposition has accused the Government of, over the past three years, stripping the ALRC of its capacity to perform its task — and the Opposition has succeeded in having the matter referred to a Parliamentary Committee for scrutiny.
The chair of the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Senator Guy Barnett, said that over the last three years the ALRC’s resources “have been stripped disproportionately to Government outlays, which is putting serious law reform at risk”. He said the ALRC had reportedly suffered staff turnover of close to 100 per cent, raising serious concerns about the stability of the commission.
The Government’s claimed failure to resource the ALRC has surprised some observers, since it was established by former Labor Attorney-General Lionel Murphy.
Commenting on the Parliamentary debate about the resourcing of the ALRC, RoLIA chief executive Richard Gilbert pointed to the amount of work undertaken by the commission with respect to past issues affecting the financial services industry.
“The ALRC was largely responsible for the Managed Investment Schemes Act — something that has stood the test of time notwithstanding significant market events and recessions,” he said.
As well, Gilbert said the ALRC’s work on the Protection of Human Genetic Information (Essentially Yours) had been pivotal to policy making and direction within the Australian insurance industry.
“Given the past track record of the ALRC and the independence and expertise it can bring to major issues, I believe the commission would have been an ideal participant with respect to the Future of Financial Advice reforms,” Gilbert said.
Barnett said he was concerned about the manner in which the Government had failed to adequately resource the commission — something that had undermined its capacity.
“Having fewer commissioners and resources has diminished the capacity of the commission, which the Government has confirmed is now barely able to handle two inquiries at once,” he said.
The terms of reference for the Senate and Legal Constitutional Affairs committee will see it examining the role, governance arrangements and statutory responsibilities of the ALRC together with the adequacy of its staffing and resources to meet its objectives.
The committee is due to report its findings by 31 March, next year.
