FAAA confident Senate Dixon inquiry will go ahead

When Senator Pauline Hanson moved a motion in the Senate for an inquiry into the collapse of Dixon Advisory and its impact on the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR), its approval was welcomed by the financial advice sector.

“Today marks a major step forward for our profession, and we want to thank Senator Hanson for her support in seeking transparency and for backing Australia’s small financial advice businesses in proposing this inquiry today,” Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) chief executive Sarah Abood said in September.

Now, 10 months after it was announced, the Senate economics committee inquiry into wealth management companies has officially lapsed.

The continual delays in progressing to hearings had previously caused the reporting date to be moved back four months from March to 28 July – which clearly signalled the inquiry would need to be closed down and then restarted.

FAAA general manager policy, advocacy and standards Phil Anderson reiterated this point on Thursday morning, adding that “the FAAA is now working closely with the financial services minister and the shadow minister to get the inquiry remounted”.

“Both parties have indicated that they support the inquiry and we are currently going through the processes required to do so,” Anderson said on LinkedIn.

“There is no indication that this won’t succeed. The FAAA continues to believe an inquiry is essential to understand the full scope of what went wrong with Dixon Advisory and to ensure it is not repeated.

“The recent experience with Shield and First Guardian emphasises the importance of an inquiry into such matters.”

While both the Senate economics and legislation committees have had their membership shaken up following the election, neither has had their chair or deputy chair named.

It is also unclear at this stage whether a remounted inquiry would start from scratch and require a fresh call for consultation, however with 18 submissions published from the prior round, the Senate committee may opt to move straight to hearings.

While the process of getting the Dixon inquiry back underway takes place, the Treasury is still working on its review of the CSLR, which was announced in January alongside the initial estimate for the FY2025–26 levy.

Treasury has yet to release any submissions to the review itself – though many stakeholders have individually published their own submissions – which has notably hampered the availability of both the CSLR operator’s submission and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s submission.

While Treasury has not announced a specific date, ifa understands the report’s release is imminent.