John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians know how to use their discretion; they know how to make up their minds when receiving financial advice. We are sceptical of experts but often we decide to trust them. People expect that if they are paying someone to give them advice then that adviser is going to be trustworthy and have their best interests at heart. Is this a fair assumption? From what I have seen in a lot of cases, definitely not. It has not been in the past, and this government seemingly wants to return us to those days. In fact, we have not even left those days. We still feel the effects being played out on the front pages of our papers with the recent Commonwealth Bank financial planning scandal.

I could go on about the mechanics of the bill, but we have heard those time and time again in this place. I have talked to numerous people from all walks of life and with all sorts of backgrounds, and not constrained to one postcode or another, who have been done over by dodgy and/or incompetent advice. We as regulators have a duty of care to people. We need to have credible deterrents, accompanied by credible penalties.

Bad advice affects individuals, families and communities. I have had so many people come into my office who have been affected by bad advice. We hear from the government that we have to free financial advisers to do the right thing. The fact of the matter is that human nature does not change. There are some reputable people and there are some disreputable people. We hoped that the reputable ones would hold the disreputable ones to account. That has not worked. I do not wish to see any more people come in to my office who have had their life savings and properties and those of their families stolen from them, in effect. I do not want to see them end up having to seek welfare. I do not want to see either them or their families with mental health issues, now or in the future.