Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to follow the member for Kingsford Smith. The member for Kingsford Smith and I have served time on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. We have spent many a long meeting discussing these issues and many more. There is much of what he had to say that I can agree with, but there is plenty that I would disagree with.

In essence, Financial Regulator Assessment Authority Bill 2021 reflects the necessity to ensure that our regulatory bodies have proper oversight. That's not to take away from the oversight role of the Parliamentary Join Committee on Corporations and Financial Services—and I know that Deputy Speaker Wallace is the chair of that committee. There is the work that we do in that space, along with other oversight bodies in this parliament and externally. But I have had the view for some time that better oversight of those regulators is required, because I've felt that they've moved into an area where, rather than focusing on enforcing the regulations and the laws that are already in place and ensuring they do that job properly, they have strayed into other areas, in terms of maybe seeking to set policy through regulatory guidance notes and other things. I'm pleased to see that we're seeking to put in place a level of oversight that hopefully, in time, sooner rather than later, will minimise that. Even in the last few committee hearings that we've had, there's been a much greater focus on what ASIC in particular—in our case—is doing to ensure that they're regulating and applying the regulation properly, and oversighting it properly, rather than getting involved in other areas.

This bill is just another one in a range of measures in relation to the Hayne royal commission that the government is putting in place. The government is committed to taking action on all 76 of those recommendations contained in that final report from the banking royal commission. Of the 76 recommendations for reform, 54 were directed to the government, 12 to the regulators and 10 to industry.

I come from a background in the banking and financial services industry, as many in this place well know. I do not for one minute condone in any way many of the activities and practices that were revealed in the royal commission. I actually think it's very sad. The vast majority of people in those industries are professionals at what they do, but a small minority of people were not, and a number of very large institutions should have known better, given their histories in this country—in particular, the Commonwealth Bank. It was formally set up in approximately 1912, I think, as the people's bank. AMP was set up as mutual society back in the 1800s and has a long history in this country. To see the Commonwealth Bank, our other big banks and AMP lose their way and lose focus on their history and what they were ultimately set up to do was a very sad day for this country. And I hope, through the outcomes of the royal commission, that our big financial institutions actually rediscover what their actual purpose is, and that is to provide a vital service for the Australian people. It is through serving the Australian people that they will be sustainable, long-term businesses. Yes, they're going to make a profit, but there is nothing wrong with businesses making a profit; they just need to do it ethically and responsibly.

Equally, where there are times when malfeasance occurs or practices that are not in accordance with the law occur and whistleblowers do take that step to blow the whistle on those activities and report them to our regulators, such as ASIC and APRA, it's critically important that our regulators do take action on those reports and that we don't have to resort again at some point in the future to another royal commission to deal with those issues, because the regulators haven't dealt with them. I think that's critically important. That's why I support this bill—because I think that having an additional lever of oversight outside of the existing parliamentary processes is critically important to ensure that our regulators operate in the best manner possible and are fit for purpose for the 21st century.

We all know that the financial services world, with the range of products, is getting more and more complex each and every day, and we need to make sure that our regulators are across that complexity and that they can provide advice back to government to amend the law as necessary to deal with that increasing complexity—not only the increasing complexity but also the variety of new products and new ways of people getting access to finance. We see many non-bank lenders now and we are seeing growth in the use of buy-now pay-later arrangements. We need to ensure that our regulators have the capacity and the focus to ensure this increasing myriad of options and systems across our financial services sector are properly regulated and are properly kept an eye on. Having something like the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority to oversight them to ensure that they're doing that properly and efficiently is, I think, going to be of great benefit to everybody in our community and across the nation. It will ensure that there is a level of confidence, both for ordinary consumers but also for our businesses, who generally have a much larger exposure to our banks through their finance facilities.

As part of this, it's also important to note that, from a government perspective, through a range of initiatives over the past 12 months to 18 months in attempting to support our business community through COVID-19, the government now actually has, the government and the Australian people have significant exposure, particularly on the lending side, to the activities of the banks and their lending standards. So for ASIC and APRA to be doing their jobs properly, and for that to be oversighted by the new body, is critically important.

I commend the work that the government is continuing to do to enact the recommendations of the Hayne royal commission to ensure that our financial system retains the stability, the transparency and, importantly, the confidence of the Australian community and consumers in being able to access funds when they require them, knowing that the advice that they're going to receive from professional advisers across the industry is there and available in a cost-effective manner for when they require it and, equally, that our regulators are doing the job that they're tasked with doing to ensure the regulations are being upheld and enforced for their benefit. I commend this bill in its unamended form to the House.

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