Jones joins the legion of the ministerial unlamented
EDITORIAL
It has been the misfortune of the financial planning profession over the past 20 years that it has rarely been blessed by having a federal portfolio minister who left advisers feeling their profession was understood.
The same might be said of outgoing Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, who came in promising to fix what he called a “hot mess” and will now leave Parliament at the upcoming Federal Election having not so much fixed the hot mess as having cooled it down a little. But only a little.
Mike, you have highlighted an interesting point about real decision making being made by the unelected bureaucrats in Treasury rather than the responsible Minister. It has become increasingly clear that Treasury bureaucrats are detached from the real world, do not care about the needs of consumers, and have an extreme bias against financial advisers.
There must be a draining of the Canberra swamp.
HIs crowning achievement is his plan to enshrine vertical integration by giving conflicted sales people the ability to ignore the education, training and compliance rules real advisers need to abide by. “Enshrining the objective of super into legislation” is just another feel good, abject waste of time from this Government and minister who have shown they are completely incapable of handling difficult reform.
Much of what we deal with is a result of the past LNP Gov but we can only hope whoever is in power after the next election is up to the task of meaningful reform that cuts pointless red tape while still leaving appropriate consumer protections in place….I won’t hold my breath.