The Federal Opposition has been accused of political opportunism in its efforts to have another Senate Committee reviewing the financial planning industry.
The Minister for Finance and acting Assistant Treasurer, Senator Mathias Cormann said the announcement by the leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten together with the Shadow Treasurer, Chris Bowen, and Shadow Minister for Financial Services, Bernie Ripoll, was an exercise in opportunistic politics.
"The Government is focused on good public policy in relation to financial services regulation and on the best possible approach to resolve legitimate outstanding and unresolved issues for aggrieved Commonwealth Bank customers," Cormann said.
"The Senate is in charge of its own destiny and can always set up any inquiry into any matter it sees fit," he said. "Government senators will of course always constructively participate in any Senate inquiry. In the meantime the Government will continue to work with all stakeholders to lift professional, ethical and educational standards across the financial services sector."
The Financial Services Council chief executive, John Brogden said the financial advice industry was open to any Parliamentary inquiry provided it focused on the future, not just the past.
"The industry is an open book. We will work with any public inquiry," he said. "However, the Parliament needs to ensure they review whether the Opposition's FoFA laws will actually deliver more affordable and accessible quality advice — as promised when they announced the FOFA legislation in April 2010."
Brogden said the financial advice industry had been through several inquiries since the GFC which had resulted in significant legislative changes and it was still in the process of implementing the MySuper, FOFA and TASA regimes.
"The Parliament needs to remember that consumers will end up bearing the costs of any new regulation," he said.
