Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Corporations Amendment (Life Insurance Remuneration Arrangements) Bill 2016. More than half of all Australians have some form of life insurance. I know it is an important part of the way people make personal arrangements. I acknowledge all of the workers in the insurance industry generally. I got to know them a lot better during the 2011 floods—not so much the life insurance industry but the general insurance industry—after my electorate was hammered by the floods, and then I was Chair of the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs, which conducted two inquiries into insurance more generally, and I got to see behind the call centres, and see behind the policies and the processes, and to acknowledge the large number of people who make a contribution through the insurance industry.

The life insurance industry specifically generates more than $56 billion annually in premiums; it is very significant and very substantial. There are around 28 registered life insurers operating in Australia at the moment. The Future of Financial Advice, or FOFA, reforms implemented by the Gillard government provided a general ban on financial advisers being offered remuneration when they sold a financial product to a consumer—not something that is familiar to lawyers. I see the member for Perth is in the chamber; certainly in his former life as a lawyer, I guess, the idea of giving legal advice when you are 21 and still being remunerated for that when you are 61 has a certain appeal!

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