FASEA extension bill faces further delays

The bill was debated in the Senate this morning and an amendment proposed by Senator Rex Patrick of the Centre Alliance was accepted by the opposition and cross benchers, meaning the bill will need to go back to the lower house.

As the government does not support Senator Patrick's amendment, and they have a majority in the House of Representatives, this could spell further delays for the bill.

AFA chief executive Phil Kewin told ifa the amendment, which relates to bringing grandfathered large proprietary companies into ASIC’s reporting scheme, was a consequence of the extension being folded into a larger bill of miscellaneous amendments.

“This is the challenge with the omnibus bill - it contains a number of different components and the FASEA extension is just one of them,” he said.

Mr Kewin said the AFA was encouraging all sides of politics to “come up with a solution” to get the extension to the FASEA deadline through parliament.

“I respect the right of Rex Patrick to make amendments, but our focus is on getting these extensions through so advisers can continue to look after their businesses and their clients and plan accordingly,” he said.

“We would encourage whatever needs to be done to pass the bill from all sides so that advisers can get the certainty they deserve.”

During the debate around the amendment, Senator Patrick said he had been “bombarded” with calls from advisers asking him to pass the bill, but that in his view the fault ultimately lay with the government that the extension would not be able to be passed in the June sitting of Parliament.

“I want to make sure advisers understand that this bill is being supported by the Senate, but it has an amendment to correct an anomaly that creates a privileged class of companies here in Australia which is no longer acceptable to Australians,” Mr Patrick said.

“If it sits in the House of Representatives, I advise what I’ve indicated privately to other senators...if you want to stop all the bills passing through the house for the purposes of protecting your mates, that’s how this is going to play out.”