The Australian Labor Party's commitment to the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) changes has not waned and it will return to its full implementation when it returns to office, according to Federal Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen.
Addressing the Financial Services Council (FSC) annual conference in Cairns, Bowen described the Abbott Government's approach to changing FOFA as having been "shambolic and secretive".
He said the financial services industry needed to understand that issues such as Storm Financial and Westpoint will not go away and that the Government's changes were likely to leave Australia with a sub-standard regulatory framework.
Further, Bowen said that the next time there was a high profile financial services failure in the manner or Storm or Westpoint it was likely that there would be a public clamour for more exacting regulatory measures to be imposed on the industry.
He said the Opposition would be opposing the Government's intended legislative amendments to FOFA when they were put to the Parliament and would not be forgetting the importance of FOFA when it was returned to Government.
