Just a few months ago you probably could have found Peter Dutton picking out bed linen for Kirribilli House – which he had notably favoured over The Lodge in Canberra – yet before Saturday night had ended, he was the first ever opposition leader to lose their seat.
There had been speculation ahead of the election that Dutton was in danger, given he had a margin of just 1.7 per cent, but few would have predicted an 8.2 per cent swing to Ali France.
In the neighbouring electorate of Petrie, shadow financial services minister Luke Howarth suffered a similar fate as his 4.4 per cent margin was unable to withstand the Labor surge.
Another Queensland Liberal MP who failed to hang on to their seat was Bert van Manen.
Entering Saturday with a similar margin as Howarth, former financial adviser van Manen saw a 6 per cent swing oust him from Forde.
He had been instrumental in the Liberal push for advice reform, launching a private member’s bill to clean up statements of advice in November last year.
It made no difference for his constituents.
Despite advisers having a contentious (to put it lightly) recent history with the Liberals, the party had backed all of the key asks coming from the profession, while the Labor government has a more complicated position on the main issues facing advisers.
The Liberals had also provided a much greater level focus on the sector in general, with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor remaining vocal on the topic while it would be tough to remember the last time Jim Chalmers even referenced financial advice.
Ultimately, their stance held little sway in an election focused more keenly on broader economic plans and cost-of-living pressures, even if greater access to advice would help address those pressures.
Indeed, if the election were held solely on the issues impacting advisers, the result could have been very different.
In an ifa poll last year, advisers significantly favoured Howarth (46.4 per cent) over Stephen Jones (9.7 per cent) as their preferred candidate for financial services minister, while the rest favoured neither. As it turns out, that remaining 43.9 per cent got what they wanted.
Where the Coalition will turn to refill its Treasury ranks is tough to gauge, as Taylor is being touted as a potential replacement for Dutton to lead the party in some corners, while his economic plan is being blamed for the defeat in others.
Either way, where the advice profession will need to focus its attention remains unclear on both sides of government, as the replacement for Jones is also yet to be announced, and ministry positions could be weeks away from being nailed down.
What is certain is that there can be no excuses for any struggles to get legislation across the line during the next three years, with Labor now having a clear path through its strengthened majority in the lower house and diminished crossbench influence in the Senate.
These delays have been among the most frustrating issues for advisers, as the “quick wins” became increasingly delayed.
Speaking at Momentum Media’s Election 2025 event last month, Jones argued that if Australia had four-year terms, the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) package would have been completed.
“I’m a big fan of four-year electoral terms,” he said, responding to a question on whether advice reform was a bigger task than he expected before taking over as minister in 2022.
“I think six more months, actually, we’d have this particular project and a couple more completed.”
The outgoing minister said his successor would now be able to “get on with the easier stuff”.
Given the strength of Labor’s victory, Jones may end up being right.
Advisers should, however, remain hopeful that the reviews and inquiries related to their biggest concern, which ifa’s pre-election poll found was the CSLR, will bear fruit.
After all, while Labor had not made solid commitments on how it would fix the scheme, the findings of the reviews will require some level of response.
In the end, when Australians cast their ballots on Saturday, how the result would impact financial advice simply wasn’t high on the list of priorities.
I had a client’s son call about a career in Financial advising this week. He has a science degree earning over $150k in supplying medical parts to surgeons & his wife is a GP. I suggested he would be better off being a GP Practice Manager & his wife to expand her obstetrician practice. They would quadruple their income that way rather than get regulated to death in our industry.
It’s time to join the AIOFP & become a friend of the ALP lol
Good luck to Industry Super providing full retirement advice via BackPacker call centre jockeys paid via Hidden Commissions.
Given there is zero relationship with BackPacker sales agents built over phone and almost impossible to speak to the same sales agent each time.
If they try to simply flog FUM with full retirement data, it will be a ISA & Consumer disaster.
Labor are now drunk with power and control.
They will be doing things their way and we all know what that means for the Labor Party Masters…..the Trade Union movement and Industry Super where the rivers of gold have never dried up.
As long as these entities continue to redirect monies to the Labor Party in the pursuit of purchasing favouritism and primary consideration before any thought of conflict of interest, then the IFA business will be last on the list or even actively pursued to further inflict damage…..if that is at all possible.
As much as the Liberals inflicted so much unnecessary pain on Financial Advice and in no way deserved another opportunity, anything would have been better for Advisers than a returned majority Labor Govt.
FAAA please continue to call out the re elected government on how bad their proposed Division 296 $3 million super tax is!
Let Australians know about your opposition to the taxation of unrealised gains and non indexation of the $3 million cap…
Also call out how abhorrent the Greens are in pushing for a lower threshold of $2 million for the tax hike which would expand the impact to a much larger cohort of Australians…
FAAA are toothless fence sitters
Well said!
It also would be helpful if there was mutual support from groups like the AIOFP, JAWG, SMSFA and all other FP and Accountancy related association groups to also support this publicly now…
This is an opportunity for the better advisers to distance themselves from the rabble.
you mean the ones that like complexity and red tape so they can charge $10,000 plus for a SOA ?
you mean those advisers who relied upon the 10 year exemption, rather than improve their educational qualifications and skills?
Dark days ahead for small practice financial advice.
In my opinion, the absolutely appalling conflict of interest between super fund trustees and legislators will tilt the table heavily in favour of advice delivery through channels which are ‘Friends of the ALP.’
DBFO will not have guardrails. Complex advice will be described as simple.
This will be no doubt utterly appalling and will see many practices shutting their doors in due course.
Any reform to the CSLR isn’t really a win. The CSLR should never have passed in the form it did originally.
I have never been so pessimistic regarding the future of the advice profession along with my own future within it.
This is utterly grim.
The AIOFP claimed success for the defeat of the Coalition as a result of their marginal seat campaign in 2022. What are they claiming success for this time around?
AIOFP are delusional
With a landslide of this size, Labour don’t have to do anything, and anyone expecting them to deal with DBFO and CSLR Favorable are in for rude shock. ISA will rule supreme. I wonder what private equity will think of the advice sector in a couple years’ time.