Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party, Deputy Chairman , Coalition Policy Development Committee) Share this | Hansard source

The Corporations (Fees) Amendment Bill 2011, as members would know, was introduced into the House on 18 August. It was subject to a committee inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics. On behalf of the coalition, I can say that we will not be opposing this bill. The bill forms the legislative basis for ASIC to levy cost recovery fees from participants of licensed financial markets. Currently ASIC only levies fees from market operators not market participants. Prior to 2009 the supervisory responsibility was transferred from domestic, licensed financial markets, such as the ASX, to ASIC, and this took effect in August of last year.

As the coalition have made clear, we welcome market competition, and the government must be doing all it can to encourage more competition in the financial services market. With respect to the specific provisions of this bill, the coalition agree with and supports the principle of cost recovery; however, the concern is that the manner in which the government seeks to—

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