Right up until Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the federal election, the prevailing expectation was that the Coalition were the firm favourites to form government – a sentiment shared by betting sites and pollsters alike.
However, since the campaigns kicked off in earnest, there has been a consistent shift away back towards the incumbent Labor Party.
With poll predictions proving far from infallible in recent years, it’s hard to argue the outcome is decided – particularly when it comes to the possibility of a minority government.
One of the few areas that the Coalition appears to be winning the election battle is in financial advice, and shadow financial services minister Luke Howarth has sought to maintain the positive messaging over reforms for the sector.
In a letter to Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP) executive director Peter Johnston, Howarth reiterated the opposition’s support for financial advisers – an industry he acknowledged has been “overburdened by the costs of excessive regulation and levies under successive governments”.
Many of the shadow minister’s pledges are ones he has made previously – from fully implementing the Quality of Advice Review’s recommendations to fixing the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) and setting a target of 30,000 financial advisers.
In the letter, Howarth said this target would “frame our commitment to supporting your members and making financial advice a more attractive and sustainable career by reducing red tape and compliance costs”.
Importantly, he said, a Coalition government would seek to ensure that “any reforms to broaden who can provide advice do not undermine the role of fully qualified financial advisers and are competitively neutral”.
Also on the agenda is a broad commitment to cut costs, which would include reviewing ongoing fee arrangement obligations, including annual fee consent forms, and life insurance commission caps, with a “view to reducing red tape and aligning with international best practice”.
Howarth added that the Coalition would create a “financial services deregulation taskforce” to simplify Australia’s corporations law and establish clear deregulation principles for all policy proposals.
“The Albanese government promised it would fix the ‘hot mess’ of advice regulation and get costs down. Instead, costs have skyrocketed, and your industry has not been a priority,” Howarth said in his letter to the AIOFP.
“A Dutton government will make advisers a priority and get the regulatory costs and levies they are being slugged with back under control.
“Please encourage your members to talk to their staff and clients about this letter and how these policies will help their businesses.
“I look forward to working with you to rebuild confidence and prosperity for financial advisers and planners across the country.”
The final push for adviser support follows the Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) launching its election hub last week, which showed the Coalition and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party have largely said they will support most, if not all, of the pre-election FAAA’s asks.
Meanwhile, Labor and the Greens have, for the most part, said they either don’t support these initiatives, or their stance on them is “complicated’.
According to insights from the FAAA hub, it appears highly likely that the Greens would oppose meaningful changes for advisers.
Namely, a clear trend among both the Greens and Labor responses is a reluctance to commit to any of the five key FAAA proposals, with many outright rejecting efforts to reduce regulatory red tape.
Howarth can promise all he wants in fact even if he promised all of this the money says his party will still be in opposition after the election this weekend…!
A move back to pre LIF commission and clawback levels
No more lengthy SoA’s
No more opt ins but an opt out
No more FASEA exam
No more professional year
No more red tape madness
No NCA’s just to suit the industry funds
etc. etc. etc.
I hate what Mr Jones has failed to do with a passion. I also feel anger every time I see Jane Hume on TV pretending to be someone who knows about the economy in general and financial services in particular. This is the woman who responded to a whinge from the CBD property developers about getting workers back into the office, without realising apparently that “work from home” is actually keeping some people on the black side of the household ledger.
But I’m sorry, but my political nose always found it difficult to accept that Dutton would firstly get elected and then provide us with the solution to our problems, if elected. Neville Wran once said that you finally saw a real politicial contest in an election when the “blowtorch was applied to the belly”. Mr Dutton has been sheltering in the Murdoch cocoon for three years and has only just stepped out into the harsh light of an election campaign.Surprisingly a lot of people are not liking what they see, away from the friendly luvvies that populate Sky-after-dark
How can we possibly believe what the Coalition says about anything. Yesterday Bridget McKenzie of the National Party, and rorts spreadsheet fame, sitting out in the marginal rural electorate of McEwan in front of Hanging Rock,said the Coalition would be looking to raise road charges on EV vehicle owners to fund our pothole covered regional roadways.
Today Mr Dutton completely walked it back. The point being the Coalition is very good at getting away with saying different things to different audiences on the same policy matter.
While Mr Howarth has been making all tthe right soothing noises to adviser forums, BUT we have no idea what they’ve been saying to our friends the banks and the insurers. Remember, the banks are contributing around $1 million each to Liberal Election funding, and they will want “bang for buck”
At least we know what Labor will do, the evidence is already there. They will continue to make changes in financial services regulation which advantages the industry superfunds.And continue to screw us with two obnoxious levies that make being in the advice business a matter for very serious consideration
Pass the whiskey, I need a big nip
With election looming, here is an interesting thought that both parties need to consider!
As of March 2025, there are 15,558 ASIC-registered financial advisers. If you average that number by 150 clients per adviser, the number totals 2,333,700 potential current votes!
This should be a clear message to both parties moving forward!