‘Wouldn’t go back to the drawing board’: Howarth pushes for DBFO implementation

Speaking at a Financial Services Council (FSC) breakfast event in Sydney on Wednesday morning, the shadow minister said it has taken far too long for the government to progress with the legislative reform coming out of the Quality of Advice Review (QAR).

“It’s been 593 days since Stephen Jones was handed the Levy report, and not a lot has been done in that time,” Howarth said.

“It was well over 500 days [before] they put through the first tranche, and we know that there were difficulties there, and the industry, as well as the opposition, worked with them to try and get changes there.

“I don’t have a lot of confidence that they will get tranche two right.”

He projected that, while the government has not yet provided a solid timeline, they may put tranche two out for consultation “when everyone’s about to go on leave at Christmas” and then come back and “rush changes through”.

“They could put it through sooner, I don’t know. But today, it’s been too slow, and they haven’t really hit what the industry’s after,” Howarth added.

However, he noted that as the shadow minister for the sector, he hopes that the government “gets it right”.

“I want them to get it right and to make your life easier and to, in turn, make it easier for Australians to get the advice that they need,” Howarth said.

“Being in opposition, what’s important for me is your feedback and the FSC’s feedback, so I can actually hold them to account and try to make the changes that are needed if they don’t get it right.”

The shadow minister also reiterated the Coalition’s stance that the government should have adopted Michelle Levy’s final QAR report in full.

“We support the Levy review in full, and we wouldn’t go back to the drawing board. I think we would just basically try to get the reforms that the industry needs right now, as quickly as possible, because time is of the essence,” Howarth said.

“The work’s been done. We understand what the industry is effectively saying, so it needs to be implemented as soon as possible. We wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel.

Speaking on The ifa Show in April, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said he saw Levy’s recommendations as an opportunity to improve the advice sector and Australians’ access to it; however, the government’s response has fallen short and created further confusion and driven the cost up.

“We’ve got many Australians that are under-advised now, and we want to get this sector really firing again. I saw Levy as a chance to do that,” Taylor said.

“It was, I think, a good report. You might not agree with all of it, but I think it was absolutely heading in the right direction, and we wanted it implemented in full as quickly as possible.”