Jones says experience pathway to go before parliament by mid-2023

Speaking at the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals’ (AIOFP) annual conference, Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said that the government is preparing to begin consulting on this topic early next year.

“I can advise you today that I am confident that we will have provisions ready for legislation in the first half of next year,” Mr Jones said.

“Some of you may ask why the commitment for relief for experienced financial advisers or even changing the qualification framework for qualified financial advisers hasn’t already been done, well we can’t just do that with a stroke of a pen,” he continued.

Moreover, Mr Jones confirmed that the government would provide “consultation documents for the sector on those issues in the early months of next year”.

“It would be my hope that we’ve got legislation in the first half of next year through to parliament so those things can be settled.”

Mr Jones first announced the experience pathway last year at the AIOFP conference. At the time, he said that an adviser’s 10-plus years of experience in the industry would be worth “at least a degree”.

The Liberal government then released its Education Standards for Financial Advisers policy paper, proposing a pathway that streamlines the minimum education requirements and recognises on-the-job experience for individuals with 10 or more years of full-time experience.

Namely, under its proposal which mirrored that proposed by Mr Jones, individuals who have 10 or more years of full-time experience as a financial adviser in the last 12 years would only need to complete a tertiary-level unit of the Code of Ethics in order to continue providing financial advice.

The pathway also asks for the eligible individuals to have a “clean record” meaning no sanctions from the Financial Services and Credit Panel, excluding warnings.

Since Labor assumed government earlier this year, advisers have been eager to see progress on establishing the pathway. Their impatience was mainly stirred by Mr Jones who himself said in May that Labor “should be able to” enact the experience pathway “pretty quickly”.

“Sworn in, consultation process, let’s get this done,” he said at the time. “We want to make sure it’s in place and up and running.”

Since then, Mr Jones’ tone has become less enthusiastic, with the Minister noting on Friday that “it does actually require legislation”.