Regulators tardy in responding to masters

Australia’s major financial services regulators are still failing to provide the same responsiveness to the questions of the Parliament that they demand of companies working in the financial services industry, according to the Rule of Law Institute of Australia (ROLIA).

The Institute has just completed its second survey of the major Commonwealth regulators investigating how long it takes them to respond to questions asked by Parliamentary committees, and has delivered the regulators another poor scorecard.

Commenting on the outcome of the survey, ROLIA chief executive Richard Gilbert said regulators in general did not answer questions on notice before the due date and, in some cases, delayed answers by months after the due date.

“It appears that based on the two surveys ROLIA has done to date the regulators seem to observe a pattern of lateness in answering questions,” he said. “A regulator who had required information from a member of the public would not allow the same liberty, especially considering failing to comply with an information request can result in fines or penal outcomes.”

Gilbert also suggested that the prolonged caretaker period around the current Federal Election should not be allowed to provide regulators with an excuse not to respond to questions taken on notice, and urged the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to make it a requirement of the caretaker provisions.