Arthur Sinodinos (NSW, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

We are not relaxing consumer protections; we are removing some unnecessary red tape and costs. The industry itself had indicated that the costs of complying with the previous governments FoFA reforms would be in the vicinity of $375 million and an ongoing cost of $300 million. These costs are not a free lunch. Regulation is not a free lunch. Those costs would have been passed on to consumers. The impact of that would have been to actually reduce the availability and affordability of financial advice. Through our changes, we are reducing those costs of implementation by around $90 million a year and, on an ongoing basis, reducing compliance costs by around $190 million a year. That will actually promote the affordability and accessibility of financial advice. There is no point in having rolled-gold laws which actually make it harder for people to get the financial advice that they need.