Labor calls for parliamentary inquiry into FASEA

Addressing the Stockbrokers and Financial Advisers Association 2021 Conference, Labor financial services spokesman Stephen Jones said he believed it would be appropriate for the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services to conduct an inquiry into the standards body, which is due to be scrapped at the end of this year.

“I think for all the issues [the SAFAA] has raised and a bunch of issues other associations have raised, this warrants parliamentary scrutiny,” Mr Jones said.

“There are two parliamentary committees that have been set up to do that and aren’t, so I would suggest you use your resources to ensure that one of the two committees, either the corporations or the economics committee – I would suggest the former as the one that produced the original report [into advice misconduct] – would be the right committee to conduct a review of this. It’s beyond time.”

Mr Jones said Treasury’s decision to absorb FASEA’s standards-setting powers as of 2022 was proof that the body had not delivered on its mandate to properly implement effective ethical and educational standards for the industry.

“The debacle that its implementation of the standards has been should be reason enough,” he said.

“The fact the government has had to ditch it and drag it back into Treasury is evidence that there’s plenty to see here and something should be done.”