Stephen Jones has been sworn in as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.
Taking to Twitter on Monday evening, Mr Jones welcomed the appointment calling it a “great honour” and noting “we’ve got so much work to do”.
Last month, during the pre-election campaign, Mr Jones doubled down on his earlier commitment to fix the “hot mess” that is the advice industry by introducing an ‘experience pathway’.
“We want to put in place a sensible, efficient recognition of prior learning arrangement so that if you’ve been doing the job for 10 years, you can continue to be a licensed adviser provided you haven’t got any black marks,” Mr Jones said.
He assured that if appointed, Labor “should be able to” enact the experience pathway “pretty quickly”.
“Sworn in, consultation process, let’s get this done.
“We want to make sure it’s in place and up and running,” Mr Jones said.
Expectations are high when it comes to Mr Jones’ appointment.
Welcoming the news, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) issued a statement noting it is eager to engage with the Minister on “pressing issues impacting both the profession and the Australian public”.
“Minister Jones is an excellent appointment to the financial services portfolio and we are looking forward to working closely with him to address the wider range of issues affecting the financial planning profession,” said FPA chief executive Sarah Abood.
“We are expecting the new Albanese Labor government to quickly deliver on its election commitment to provide much-needed certainty to the profession on education standards, including providing for a framework to better recognise relevant experience,” she added.
Speaking to the ifa recently, Peter Johnston, the executive director of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals (AIOFP), labelled Mr Jones “the most honest politician” in Canberra.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years now, dealing with politics and whatever, and the bottom line is he’s the most honest I’ve actually come across,” Mr Johnston said.
Earlier this year, joining Momentum Media on an exclusive podcast, Mr Jones criticised the government for “monumentally mishandling” regulatory changes across the financial services industry and vowed to do better if Labor is elected to government.
The shadow minister gave a candid assessment of the financial services industry, labelling the poorly managed “tsunami of regulatory changes” as the main culprit for adviser exodus in Australia.
“There was a whole bunch of changes that were in play, there was a known timeline for it, not going back months or even years. Some of this stuff has been five, six years in the making, how a government could monumentally mishandle a bunch of this stuff is beyond belief, particularly a government that says it’s a good economic manager.
“It is just beyond belief the mess that they’ve created in this sector,” Mr Jones said.
I never thought I will say this as a Liberal voter but Jane Hume was useless in this role and this industry is better off to see her go. Just about anyone should do a better job, hopefully Stephen Jones will take it on himself to fix a broken system.
Stephen Jones was previously a lawyer with the ACTU.
Say no more.
Dont hold your breath.
Scott Morrison didn’t even mention the words ” financial advisers” during his entire term, let alone actually know what they do.
Josh Frydenberg apparently had a pre-determined dislike for advisers based on a close family member’s experience
and he was entirely focused on getting his stripes ready for the big chair.
Jane Hume?….who ?
I will tell you who Jane Hume is…. she is the one leading the liberal party’s review into their election loss. What a joke. The liberal party is stuffed. Financial planners have been influencers long before the term became trendy. Hume turned us from their biggest and most influential ally, into their enemy. To appoint her in this role shows the surviving members don’t have a clue and nothing will change.
Given how she ran her ministerial portfolio, her review findings will be that the party is doing a great job and it should continue on its present course.
At least he is saying and “intending” on doing a lot more than the Liberal clowns we just had. We were promised the world by the Liberals and they delivered a broken Atlas. But even if they don’t deliver, nothing much will have changed!
Yeah I agree just leave us alone for the next 3 years could be the best thing for the industry, we don’t need any more clever government ideas on how to make the industry better it only makes it worse each time.
His best course of action, would be to just LEAVE US ALONE….!
The more they have “enquiries” the more issues come out
Wonder if these comments might come back to bite Mr Jones? I sincerely hope not, given the mess we’re in.
His union fund masters will be rubbing their hands in glee. Look out for more carve outs for super funds and broken promises for financial planners.
He clearly is more intelligent than Hume and Frydenberg combined. And is very when “Mr Jones criticised the government for “monumentally mishandling” regulatory changes””
Frydenberg, Hume and teh Liberals have literally destroyed the industry.
Fast track the changes wihout bureaucratic interference ASAP, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we’ve eaten too much humble pie to date..The key now is to give us speedy certainty around the ‘experience pathway’ recognising prior experiential learning.
Interesting if the FPA, who willingly and strongly supported the decade of changes to the detriment of the industry and consumers, somehow passes off the blame to a govt or other when the FPA and FSC were basically the promoters of the changes. Had they actually voiced any opposition most changes would have been questioned and likely approached very differently. However that would not have been approved by the people who pay the bills I suppose.
The people that pay the bills are not you or I…it’s members that work in Union Super Funds and those Super funds pay their members fees in bulk. AwareSuper etc etc….good luck competing with that.
Good news. No doubt his focus on the task at hand will see further progress towards reducing emissions and rein in catastrophic climate change. Not sure he will be any help as far as the FP industry goes?
🙄 Won’t be much of an industry if the planet’s uninhabitable
Politicians promises are like one ply toilet paper. Looks fine but Under pressure and you finish up soiled. Let’s wait and see what is actually put up before we anoint him as a saviour.
He’s a former union heavy, so guess whose interests he’ll represent. .
Let’s hope the new appointment has more integrity and the ability to honour his promises than Melissa Caddick…
Let’s see what happens – hopefully he does help sort this industry out.