Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to sum up the ASIC Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Bill 2017. Firstly, I would like to thank those members who have contributed to this debate.

This bill continues to deliver on the government's commitment to strengthen the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, ASIC, and to better protect Australian consumers. The government recognises that our financial institutions have not always lived up to the reasonable expectations of all Australians. That is why we are empowering our regulators to take action today, rather than spending three years holding a royal commission into the financial services sector that would provide no practical benefit to everyday Australians but, of course, plenty of benefits to barristers.

Introducing any industry funding model for ASIC will increase the transparency of the regulator. It will make the industry directly accountable for its conduct and it will make ASIC more efficient and proactive as a regulator. It is a critical component of our plan to improve outcomes in the financial services sector and it builds on other measures in the government's comprehensive financial sector program, including the $127.2 million funding package allocated to ASIC in 2016 to ensure that it continues to be the tough cop on the beat.

Industry funding will do four main things: firstly, improve equity; secondly, encourage regulatory compliance; thirdly, improve ASIC's resource allocation; and, finally, enhance ASIC's transparency and accountability and, by extension, its performance. Equity between taxpayers will improve because from 2017-18 only those entities which are regulated by ASIC and create the need for that regulation will pay for it rather than the Australian taxpayers, who too often bear the cost of the financial sector's misconduct.

There will be greater compliance with regulatory requirements, because industry sectors with good conduct records will require fewer ASIC resources and will face lower regulatory costs than those sectors that continue to pose unacceptable risks to Australian consumers. ASIC will become more efficient, agile and innovative as a result of the collection of new rich data on actual business activity. Coupled with the government's $61.1 million investment in ASIC's analytical capabilities, this data will allow ASIC to better identify emerging risks, prioritise its resources and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Industry funding will also increase ASIC's transparency.

These bills will require ASIC to publicly explain its regulatory priorities, to demonstrate how it will address them and to account for its performance, including the dollars it spends and the regulatory tools it uses. This will encourage ASIC to ensure that it is as efficient as possible whilst boosting investment in performance assessment, as recommended by the ASIC capability review. Finally, to ensure that industry funding delivers on its promise, the bills will grant ASIC powers to enforce the industry funding model, which will provide industry with confidence that everyone is paying their fair share. For entities that are not operating with the correct licence or authorisation, ASIC will be able to impose on those entities the cost recovery levies that would have been payable had the entity been properly licensed. In addition to whatever other enforcement ASIC deems necessary, ASIC will also be empowered to charge penalty interest at 20 per cent per annum and to take appropriate administrative action, including the possible suspension or cancellation of a licence.

As demonstrated, these bills deliver on the government's promise to strengthen ASIC and better protect Australian consumers. I commend the bills to the House.

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