Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw.

An honourable member interjecting—

I know the member for Mackellar is very—we know who you are. So do the banks. We know that when it came to action, consumers and customers could not be relied upon. On that particular note, I want to put something on record regarding this piece of legislation today and the further influence and strengthening of powers that it will give to ASIC in terms of its governance structure. When the rubber hit the road a matter of weeks ago, and we saw the first tranche of victims coming forward to the royal commission and telling their very powerful stories about how the banks had treated some customers, the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services appeared on ABC's Insiders. In describing the minister's refusal to come clean, media reports at the time described it as a disastrous interview. We've all seen it on our social media feeds, with the minister refusing to give a straight answer to a very simple question: was the government wrong to stall on calling a royal commission into the banks, given the appalling evidence that we had heard just that week from consumers and customers? We note that in the media reports in the article on five occasions the minister failed to answer questions about her past opposition to this inquiry. That totalled 10 unanswered questions on the government's delay on implementing a royal commission, even though in July last year the minister responsible was quoted as saying there would be 'no benefit to customers'. This is the person in charge of financial services in this country, who proudly said a year ago that we didn't need a royal commission because it would be of no benefit to consumers. Talking about withdrawal and apologies, I think it's about time that the minister came into this place and apologised to the consumers and customers for not listening and not caring about them.

We know there can be no doubt whatsoever that this government was wrong to delay the royal commission into the banks as long as it did, and in doing so—let's be clear—allowing Australians to be ripped off. It may not be enough to fix the problems of the past, but it's a start. Having a second deputy chairperson will support ASIC in engaging with its stakeholders to better communicate its role, its priorities, and how its resources are allocated. It will provide greater flexibility for the commission to determine how it undertakes its oversight and other governance functions. But given the shocking evidence presented to the royal commission so far, it's clear we need strong and effective regulators.

In recent times, ASIC's role has been expanding. ASIC has new direction powers to strengthen its oversight of the new one-stop shop dispute resolution body, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. I want to note that the government has also proposed that ASIC be responsible for the management of expected additional disclosures following reforms to whistleblower laws. And ASIC may soon also have new responsibilities for administering the new Asia Region Funds Passport regime.

As Australia's corporate markets, financial services and consumer credit regulator, we need ASIC to operate as effectively and as efficiently as possible. That's why, today, Labor will be supporting this bill. This is more than can be said for the member for Warringah, who, instead, has called for everyone employed at ASIC to get the sack. That's right: the member for Warringah, after hearing about the startling revelations and misconduct of the banks, took aim not at those who'd committed the horrid acts but instead at the regulator, who the member for Warringah, when he was Prime Minister, gutted to the tune of $120 million. Speaking on the matter, the member for Warringah said:

… all the existing regulators should be sacked and people who are much more vigilant and much less complacent go in their place.

This level of hypocrisy within the Abbott-Turnbull government is astounding but not surprising. This is the same member, who, as I said, slashed $120 million from ASIC's funding over four years when he was Prime Minister, when he was the then leader of the government, in 2014.

Those opposite have a long record of turning a blind eye to what is going on with financial misconduct in the financial sector. We should never ever forget the coalition's opposition to the previous Labor government's Future of Financial Advice, or FoFA, laws and their attempts when in government to reverse them. The FoFA reforms gave ASIC important new powers to rein in poor financial advice. In opposition, the coalition voted against FoFA in the House and voted against FoFA in the Senate. When they got into government, the coalition tried to gut FoFA by legislation and then regulation. I'm proud to be part of a party that fought tooth and nail to stop this, and it was lucky that Labor prevailed in the Senate in stopping this from happening.

We know that when it comes to the protection of consumers, the rights of consumers, there is one side of politics that will always call out misconduct, that will always call out people being ripped off, and that is the Australian Labor Party. We are the party that has fought tooth and nail to deliver a royal commission, standing shoulder to shoulder with consumers and customers in this country. It took this government months, if not years, to deliver a royal commission. Now we need justice for everyone in Australia.

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