Financial planners will have to renegotiate the enshrinement of the term "financial planner/adviser" with whichever party wins Government at the forthcoming Federal election because the legislation introduced by the Financial Services Minister, Bill Shorten, has not made its way into the Senate to pass the Parliament.
The Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann, has confirmed to Money Management that the legislation had not made its way onto the Senate notice paper and said the Government had not even tried to put the enshrinement legislation up.
"There was nothing preventing the Government from passing that legislation through the Senate," he said. "They rammed 55 Bills through the Senate using the guillotine and so-called ‘time management processes'. There was nothing stopping them from making it 56 if that's what Labor wanted to do."
Cormann said the Coalition had made it absolutely clear to Bill Shorten's office that while "we had reservations about the proposal we would not oppose the legislation if they put it to the Senate".
"Bill Shorten has proven yet again that his word cannot be trusted — whether it is by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard or by the Financial Planning Association," he said. "I don't believe that he ever intended on delivering his side of the bargain over FOFA. But then again, it could just be the result of sheer incompetence and chaos in the Labor Party.
"Bill Shorten has obviously been totally distracted away from his portfolio responsibilities for some time trying to set himself up for the job he wants after the election instead of doing the job he's got now," Cormann said.
FPA chief executive Mark Rantall acknowledged that the enshrinement legislation had not made it onto the Senate notice paper but said the FPA would not give up the cause.
"We will still continue to fight to have professional financial planners recognised in law," he said. "FPA has been working on this all week and understands how the extraordinary events this week have meant that only critical pieces of legislation have been prioritised. We will continue to work hard today with a view to seeing if it is at all possible to get the enshrinement legislation through."
