Further accountability for FASEA unlikely: van Manen

Speaking at the AIOFP’s virtual conference on Thursday, Liberal MP Bert van Manen said while the government had an eye on FASEA’s ongoing accountability process, it was also keen to ensure the authority maintained a significant degree of independence.

“With respect to accountability for FASEA, they’re required to report to Parliament and appear for Senate estimates, and as part of those hearings to answer questions from senators at estimates. Those hearings are conducted by both government senators and the opposition,” Mr van Manen said.

“The second bit is we’ve got to ensure with any regulatory body that they maintain independence – whilst there are ongoing discussions with the relevant ministers, given their responsibility to make decisions we want to make sure they make decisions free from political interference.”

The comments come following a recent hearing of the House economics committee in which Mr van Manen’s Coalition colleague Tim Wilson blasted FASEA for its poor implementation of the industry standards framework and suggested the authority needed to be regularly accountable to the committee in the same way as ASIC and APRA.

Mr van Manen said the government had no immediate plans to change FASEA’s accountability to Parliament, but that the establishment of the adviser disciplinary body next year could provide an opportunity to restructure the way both organisations were regulated.

“The accountability function is through that Senate estimates process, but we will continue to review those in due course if we finish up with a different model for FASEA in particular,” he said.

“In terms of the establishment of a single disciplinary body or those sorts of models, the accountability measures could change in time to come.”