James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Hanson. I'd like to point out that we require a suburban financial planner with the most meagre of resources to have an AFS licence to practise in this country. It is a pretty basic requirement for operating as a financial services provider. The Federal Court had found that litigation funders were financial services providers and were required to have an AFS licence and be considered an MIS until Mr Bowen, as the financial services minister, issued a regulation of his own, Senator O'Neill—I know you have strong objections to regulations—to exempt them from that requirement. That was despite the fact that the courts had found that they were subject to it.

I look forward to handing down the final report of the committee so that the parliament can consider a more durable solution to this problem. In the meantime, it would be an enormous mistake to get rid of these regulations, which require very basic, very minimal standards of efficiency, honesty and fairness.