Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion and rise to speak on the member for Forde's private member's bill, the Corporations Amendment (Streamlining Advice Process) Bill 2024. I commend the member for Forde, who's got a lot of experience in this industry, for this bill, which is an important step towards reducing red tape for financial advisers and Australians that need the advice. The Albanese Labor government's inaction on financial advice reforms is leaving Australians underadvised and underinsured.

It's been 689 days since Michelle Levy handed down to the Albanese government her quality-of-advice review's final report—689 days! The government has failed advisers by leaving the implementation of the review's most important red-tape-reducing recommendations to the very last minute, including the recommendation to remove statements of advice. Action on reforming the burdensome statement of advice process is long overdue, and these reforms will significantly reduce the time and cost of providing advice.

The Levy review found on average that it can take up to 14 hours to produce a statement of advice. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis under the Albanese government, where 12 interest rate rises have sent rents through the roof and people's mortgages through the roof at the same time that immigration has ramped up and homelessness is on the rise, people can't get advice, because the statement of advice—the red tape and regulation that's been put in place in this House—takes up to 14 hours to do. For a financial adviser that has a firm with a secretary and staff and everything else—rent, wages, super and all the rest of it—you can be paying $200 to $300 an hour. At $250 an hour times 14, you're up for $3,500 just to get a statement of advice.

The member for Forde was spot on when he spoke about the tradie that needs some financial advice. The bill that the member for Forde has put forward can cut that advice by perhaps up to 12 hours. So all of a sudden, you have a bill that goes down from $3½ thousand to $500. That's smart work from the member for Forde. That's what we should be doing in this House. Every minister in this government should be thinking daily: 'How do we reduce regulation? How do we reduce red tape?' Right now Australians and small businesses are heaving under the weight of the regulation in this place, and the Albanese government needs to cut red tape. We know the FAAA and other associations, such as the Financial Services Council, are behind reducing red tape.

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