AIOFP canvasses advisers building election war chest
Financial advises could have greater political influence if they had a financial war chest heading into the next Federal Election.
That appears to be the bottom line of a message from the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals executive director, Peter Johnston, in a message to member commenting on reports that superannuation fund executives will hear first and exclusively the Government’s approach to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR).
He said the reports that the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones would be outlining the QAR approach to an Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) event should come as no surprise to advisers.
“It is time we learn from it and finally do something about it,” Johnston said in a message to AIOFP members.
“The harsh reality of the Australian political landscape is allowing any person or entity to make political donations of any description to any political party is a profound conflict and should be banned with criminal charge implications, but nothing is done about it since Federation in 1901.”
“The only section of society funding ALL political parties should be the Tax Payer, that ensures all Political parties will act in the best interests of Tax Payers NOT those who fund them – its not rocket science. You may recall Paul Keating said, ‘just follow the money trail…..’”
“The commencement of ICAC on July 1st would keep ‘the bastards honest’, but we need the Politicians to agree…..which is unlikely particularly when the defined benefit Super Pension [grandfathered of course!] was eliminated in 2004.”
“It is common knowledge that broadly the Institutions favour the Liberal Party and the Industry Super funds the ALP. Despite our support of the ALP in recent times with marginal seats etc, the millions they get from other sources puts us down the pecking order for ‘favours’, hence, the Super Fund function announcement decision on Tuesday.”
“What can we do about it?”
“Easy solution, if all Advisers banded together [to] pay $10 per week we will have $15,600,000 in 2 years ready to spend at the next election….[15,000 x $520 = $7,800,000 x2 without compounding implications].
“That will certainly get us up the pecking order!” Johnston said.
Haven’t we heard this all before? He tried to raise funds a few years ago for a fighting fund? What ever happened to the money he raised then, when he was promising to take the ban on grandfathered commissions to the High Court? That was another example of a lot of noise with absolutely no outcome. What transparency is there to the money that was given to him then? It is impossible to find any financial statements for the AIOFP.
Isn’t it remarkable that a person who orchestrated a marginal seat campaign in support of the ALP, now acknowledges that he has little political influence and is calling for a ban on all political donations. It is surprising to get a lecture on the reality of politics from someone who has put 110% of his eggs in the one basket. Governments come and go, however political parties have long memories!
Given the legal issues and bannings AIOFP directors have been involved with over the years – you’d be better just flushing it down the toilet!
The Funds from the last fighting fund tried by the AIOFP were returned to Advisers that contributed, less a very small administrative charge.
Nothing to hide from AIOFP there buddy.
As for all the Advisers that wouldn’t contribute to try to help, sad effort, thus there wasn’t enough to try a court case.
At least Peter and the AIOFP are trying and actually go into bat for Advisers.
Where’s my money?
Admin fees?
Peter’s not going into bat for Advisers. That’s a joke. The only thing he’s focused on is sending 20 emails a day about his Bangkok holiday and organizing the Golf day for that conference. The guy needs to resign after this QAR fiasco,and the division he’s caused.
In one of his latest emails, he has turned into the number one flag bearer for the industry funds. His conclusion was “The industry funds have spent plenty on consumer education and we should no longer see them as a threat, we should embrace them.” That would be a sight to see. He is certainly drinking the red cordial today.
Agreed, Peter’s email today is off chops about supporting Industry Super.
Surely someone creative could come up with a ‘new series’ of ‘Fox in the Henhouse’ ads on TV?
Just with a different ‘fox’.
Or someone like this guy could call out the corruption. What he’s implying is that Public Servants in Treasury, ASIC, and Politicians can all be purchased. We all know they’re corrupt and it’s dollars and Union Super funds that determine what’s best for Australians.
I got curious so looked up a few of the advisers on the AIOFP. Noted there is a large bulk of Synchron advisers (group deal maybe??). Anyway my question to Peter is 2 fold.