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

Minister, if I have that wrong, I am happy to withdraw it, but I am happy to have this discussion with you. You are, Minister, of course, entitled to bring proposals for change to the parliament through legislation, but this is a controversial law with, what I believe, is the stroke of a pen and then you expect the Senate, the parliament to fall into line. I believe in so doing that you put the cart before the horse. I am concerned about the policy detail of these regulations and, in the interests of brevity, I specifically addressed item 7. I believe the best interests duty in these regulations removes the only component that clearly requires an adviser to act in a client's best interests, the so-called catch-all.

Senator Cormann, Senator Williams, Senator Canavan and Senator Macdonald, I note your concern and I share your concern about the small business operators, the majority of whom act honourably and honestly. And this is no reflection on those people. Those people need surety, as do the people who have lost their life savings, to whom Senator Williams has referred. We need transparency, accountability, creditable deterrence and, if the law is broken, it must be applied without fear or favour. We have a duty of care to all Australians, not to individual vested interests. Time and time again I have had people come into my office, both here and at home, who have told me of the shocking advice, the poor advice they have received from some, and I have heard the same names come up time and time again of some dodgy advisers.

I note many of the issues which have been raised here tonight by the minister, by Senator Macdonald, by Senator Canavan and by Senator Williams and I note all of your concerns, seriously. I also note the serious concerns of people in the ALP from their point of view, but at the end of the day, we have to get past this, 'He said, you said, she said,' and we have to act in the interests of all Australians and clean up this mess. I note the comments made by the government and the minister that there are large anomalies in what was proposed by the former government. We need to address those anomalies. We need to get on and do it.

I also acknowledge the government's frustration with where we are at, but to be fair, if we are going to play the blame game, we are never going to sort this mess out and I, for one, want to sort this out, as I said in the best interests of all Australians in a fair, equitable and transparent manner.