Speaking at the Australian Wealth Management Summit in Sydney on Wednesday, Senator Jane Hume argued in favour of implementing the full scope of the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) final report handed down by lead reviewer Michelle Levy.
“I’ve seen the industry develop over so many years. It had a really tough time. I think in the last, probably, 15 years, there was just so much reform, with good intentions, but sometimes with very difficult outcomes,” Hume said.
“But I do feel that we’re now poised to be able to create a thriving financial advice system in Australia that is far more ubiquitous.”
The senator said that she was “really proud” of commissioning the QAR near the end of her tenure as financial services minister on the back of the Hayne royal commission.
“[Commissioner Kenneth Hayne] suggested that we do a review into quality of advice. To be honest with you, I don’t think by the time we got to it, the quality of advice was really the problem,” Hume said.
“The problem was more the accessibility and the affordability of advice, which is why we expanded the remit of that Hayne royal commission recommendation to include accessibility and affordability, and why we appointed somebody with the big brain and the good intentions of Michelle Levy to run that review.”
Commenting on the final report that Levy delivered to the government at the end on 2022, she said it was a “breath of fresh air” that would “allow the industry to expand and to innovate”.
“It would allow, most importantly, for more Australians to get the opportunity to receive financial advice, because we know that there’s a demand out there,” Hume added.
“The Coalition still stands by its position to adopt the recommendations of the Levy review in full. In full and with the intentions with which those recommendations were made.”
She also echoed comments from shadow treasurer Angus Taylor that the Labor government has erred in its reforms by not adopting the full report.
“My concern is that this government hasn’t really shown an appetite to do that. Instead, it has tended to go back to its safe space and play in the area of big superannuation funds, particularly the industry funds.
“I think that there’s so much more that we can do here that will be so good for not just the economy and not just the financial services sector, but for individuals, for the little guy. So, I’d like to see the levy recommendations adopted in full.”
Hume’s comments are right in line with those of shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, who has been consistent that a Coalition government would seek to implement the QAR recommendations in full.
Speaking on a recent episode of the ifa Show, Taylor said he saw Levy’s recommendations as an opportunity to improve the advice sector and Australians’ access to it, however, the government’s response has fallen short and created further confusion and driven the cost up.
“We’ve got many Australians that are under-advised now, and we want to get this sector really firing again. I saw Levy as a chance to do that,” he said.
“It was, I think, a good report. You might not agree with all of it, but I think it was absolutely heading in the right direction, and we wanted it implemented in full as quickly as possible.”
It is fair to say that many advisers who left the industry would be bitter about government interventions historically effecting their profession, I thought I would mention some of the circus clowns that have that have destroyed the financial services in days gone by, Bowen, Hume come to mind
The former MIA Financial Services Minister reappears to stroke her own ego. Go back in hiding & never come out again, please.
“…with good intentions, …with very difficult outcomes”
Good intentions?
No, Jane, no. The only intention was to virtue-signal.
“Difficult”?
Yes, Jane, yes. Consumers (and advisers) now pay the price for your virtue-signalling antics.
No wonder Mr Hayne displayed utter contempt for politicians.
It should be Jane Humiliation!
What a completely deluded sense of grandeur and self importance these people carry with them.
It’s insulting they almost believe we forget the past and look to them for the next instalment of pain.
I’m utterly convinced they do not live in this reality.
Spot on
SENATOR JANE HUMILIATION
The whole of Canberra’s Pollies & Bureaucrats seem to believe if they keep telling the same Lies eventually we will accept them.
The last 20 years of this rabble has hurt Australia tremendously.
Not just Advisers that are on the way to being beaten to extinction.
– Look at the Housing disaster, how does a country with abundant land and building resources have such an expensive mess?
– why do we subsidies mining companies to plunder our Oil and Gas Resources and they pay nearly no taxes?
– then charge our young adults HUGE Uni fees.
I am absolutely sick of Canberra clowns.
How many signed members do we have to have to get The Financial Services Party up and running and ready for the next election??
I am certain we would have plenty of now recently retired Advisers with decades of experience and knowledge that could put their names up as candidates.
Based on how certain preferences can work, it may not be that hard to get an elected candidate into the big house.
She has nothing to be proud of. The average cost of advice is $4500 thanks to ever increasing compliance costs and 60 page SOAs that take 12 hours min
She did not write the QAR report so she cant claim credit there
Maybe get back to getting Joshie re-elected
ll better than the damage Jones has done and will do in bastardising the QoAR making it legal for backpackers to be “Qualified Financial Advisers” with no ethical or experiencial standards. As awaful as tehy were at least they didnt pretend for 2 years they would enact positive change. KICK OUT THE ALP YESTERDAY AND INCOMPETENT JONES
Jonesy has made 1 helping rule to save older Advisers with the FARSEA Experience Pathway. (Though 50% of Advisers disagree with that)
But Jonesy doing NOTHING else has been more helpful for Advisers than the previous 9 years of Frydenberg, Humiliation & ODwyer Killing us.
Wtf? Jane Hume oversaw the demise of financial planning in Australia together with her fellow spud politician Frydenberg…
Trying to rewrite the truth to suit her agenda must be called out!
We will never forget what you did or who you are Jane Hume. The shame is on you.
Spud = Sly-bugger. He was always opening the batting for the Corporates and now, we have Jones opening the batting for the Unions.
Any Advisers (or ex-advisers) out there intending to run for parliament? This is the quality we have right now. Be good if there were more understanding about our industry.
My god. She’s proud of asking someone else to do her job for her and now she’s sitting back and wondering why she’s in opposition. Let’s hope the next financial services minister is far more competent than the current one and his immediate predecessor. It’s certainly a race to the bottom from both sides of politics when it comes to competence.
Unfortunately, the Financial Services portfolio seems to wind up with some of the worst performers in parliament (Hockey, Shorten, Bowen, O’Dwyer, Hume, Jones). No wonder our industry is in so much trouble.
surely she knows that she has been responsible for one of the biggest screwups in the history of Australian politics …. and she is crowing about appointing someone to fix the mess that she was directly responsible for in the first instance …. I just don’t get it.
She has nothing else to say anymore. This is attention seeking to get her name in lights.
There must be an election looming, all the lies and misinformation are spewing from the Politicians mouths…..how do you know when they are lying?…..the lips are moving.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think by the time we got to it, the quality of advice was really the problem…The problem was more the accessibility and the affordability of advice”.
So let me get this straight, Hume knew the industry had moved to a profession but was ok with putting 15,000 advisers out of work and pushing the cost of advice higher by increasing the compliance regime and whacking us with more levies.
And politicians wonder why we have no confidence or faith in them fixing this continuing hot mess.
Actions speak louder than words and all I’m hearing is BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Not only putting 15K out of work, what about the mental health toll?
Not just advisers, think about all of the support staff
Still as out of touch as ever. Some choice we have between her and Jones.
Oh, how wonderful. Is she also proud of the 15000 advisers that left the industry?
What about the LIF? Is she also proud of the fact that advice is more expensive than ever?
What about the big banks and product sellers who caused most of the drama? Is she proud of the fact that they all got to keep their bonuses and their AFSLs while shareholders foot the bill??
The changes proposed by Michelle Levy were set to radically improve the financial advice landscape. Sadly, two years on, almost nothing has changed. Time for the government to walk the talk.