Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the government for vested interests, there are many skewed priorities. One of the most skewed priorities in recent months has been the government's decision to review the professional investor test. The government has decided to do this at the urging of the corporate cop ASIC, which has a lamentable enforcement record.

As we have discovered in the course of this parliament, this government, the Labor government, has actively helped ASIC obfuscate the Senate's inquiries into its lax law enforcement. The reality of a lower test for professional investors is that there would be more paternalism and more people subjected to ASIC's appalling and weak enforcement protocols. This would also have the bizarre effect of damaging angel investors and making investments that should be available to all Australians the preserve of only the uber-rich.

It is a bizarre priority for a government which has a very light economic policy agenda to focus on an area where there's been no consumer detriment, other than where ASIC has failed to enforce the law and to protect retail investors. It is a very bizarre priority, and we will be undertaking further inquiries through the economics committee's processes.