Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of Senator Cormann's answers. Less than 24 hours ago in this place, we saw a dirty political deal done to allow this government to force through and maintain their changes to the Future of Financial Advice that Senator Cormann had been so desperate to introduce but had completely failed to sell to Australian consumer groups—a deal to maintain a set of regulations that not one single consumer advocacy group in this country remotely supported. The letter tabled in this place by Senator Cormann yesterday has no effect; it does not change anything. As soon as Phil Coorey's Palmer United press release arrived in letterboxes around Australia, journalists began doing what they should have been doing—that is, working the phones and calling bank compliance officers and financial law experts. By yesterday afternoon, the truth started coming out and what everyone is reading today: despite the endless, robotic, monotonous, ad nauseam repetition from this government and in particular Senator Cormann, the consumer protections contained in FoFA were not red tape; they were protections designed to make sure that consumers and hardworking Australians were not being ripped off.

Mr Deputy President, through you I say you to my friends in the Palmer United Party and my friend Senator Muir, of the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party, as I said in this chamber yesterday: you have been sold a pup. You have had the wool pulled over your eyes. How can anyone think for a second that the Abbott government is going to give you concessions of any consequence in a deal that was pitched over a bottle of wine and announced in a front-page splash?

As we on this side of the chamber have said again and again, this is a government that cannot be trusted. It cannot be trusted to look after the interests of Australian workers when those interests come in conflict with those of dodgy financial advisers and Liberal Party donors. Why on earth has this government decided to side with the financial interests of a handful of crooks, criminals and con men?

The member for Fairfax gave Phil Coorey of TheAustralian Financial Review a four-point plan. I want to use my remaining time to dissect that plan. Firstly, it requires a legally binding statement. Wink, wink—all that has actually been agreed to here is a bit of paper. That is all—a bit more red tape. Let us be clear. Advisers either comply with the Corporations Act or they do not. The government complains about red tape. All they have done here is make a harebrained addition to the administrative burden of the financial advice industry, without any attempt to change the behaviour of that industry.

Secondly, Mr Palmer has demanded that clients are provided with a fee disclosure statement. That sounds sensible, but it is plainly explicit in Senator Cormann's letter that this is already a requirement. This was a requirement as of July 2013. But it is just a requirement that clients are informed of these fees. It does not ensure that they agree to paying them. Thirdly, a 14-day cooling off period may sound appealing, but, again, Senator Cormann has given the Palmer United Party something that already exists in the Corporations Act. It is there in section 1019B. Finally, the fourth demand of concession given so generously by our friend on the crossbenches is an escape clause allowing investors to switch strategies in the event of underperformance, which, again, we already have. This four-point plan is utterly meaningless. It is not worth the paper it was printed on minutes before it was brought into this place. This letter, this grand bargain, is nothing but a cruel joke, a cruel joke on the backs of hardworking Australians who have seen their savings lost. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.