ifa told QAR before cabinet, but advisers don’t trust Jones’ promise

ifa has learnt that the government’s response to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) is currently before the cabinet and that a response should be released within the next seven days.

However, according to a poll on ifa, as many as 64.5 per cent of advisers are “not confident at all” that the government’s QAR response will be delivered soon.

Of the 166 people that responded to the poll by 7 June, 38 or 22.9 per cent said they were “not very confident”, 16 or 9.6 per cent said they were “somewhat confident”, while only five advisers said they were “very confident”.

The QAR lead, Michelle Levy, submitted her final QAR report to Mr Jones on 16 December. Since then, aside from initiating a review of the review, the minister has offered very little insight into how the government feels about the 267-page report.

This, understandably, has been a source of frustration for many advisers who have felt in limbo since the QAR was first announced in March last year.

Last month, Mr Jones said that he would formulate a response to the QAR by late May or early June.

At the time, the minister said that the budget had occupied much of his time, and that had it not been for the budget, the government’s assessment of the review would have been publicised earlier.

“We will have a cabinet consideration in a few weeks’ time. I hope to be in a position in late May or early June,” the minister said on 12 May.

Again, at the end of May, Mr Jones offered some more insight into the report at the Stockbrokers Conference in a pre-recorded video message, carefully choosing his words so as not to reveal too much.

“This [QAR] was a thoughtful piece of work that has had wide-ranging recommendations. The review shines a spotlight on the issues I identified before the election. Current advice framework is filled with overlapping regulations that mean we try to stop the same behaviour or fix the same problem in multiple ways. Well, this has protected Australians from bad advice. It’s also made it very difficult for them to get access to good advice. So, we need to clean this up,” Mr Jones said.

“We’ve just gone through a huge budget process, hundreds of decisions have needed to be made to look after Australians … but now that that’s been done, I’ll have more to say about the government’s response to the review very soon,” the minister noted.

He explained that, just like he did with the experience pathway, he is “determined” to work with the industry and regulators to “get it right” and “make a meaningful difference”.

“I want to make sure that the profession is properly regulated and governed so that people and processes are best placed to get consumers the advice that they need.

“We also want to have a conversation about how to get more advice to more Australians in a safe way that puts at the centre consumers.”

Advisers, however, widely believe that one of the first areas of QAR the minister will enact is its most contentious recommendation for superannuation funds to be allowed to provide advice.

In fact, in his pre-recorded video, the minister admitted that the government wants to “explore how we can get more advice into the economy that could make a real difference to the lives of Australians”.

“But we need to do it in a way that is measurable, consumer-centric, and responsible,” he said.

At the time, the minister also reflected on the accusations he has faced regarding his perceived lack of urgency on the QAR, promptly taking a jab at the former government.

“We’ve seen the problems from the last government of rushing to implement things without working with industry, with a clear goal in mind to help consumers.

“I’m determined that we don’t make those same mistakes.”

Commenting on what he believes will be the report’s imminent release, Peter Johnston, the executive director of the Association of Independently Owned Financial Professionals, said: “Considering Ms Levy had nine months to release her views and the minister used Treasury and independent advisers in deliberations, to release a response within six months is an exceptional achievement”.