Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

The answer to that final question is: no. Let me just make a general point. Here in Australia we have a very good financial services industry. Australian financial products and services performed very well by global standards throughout the GFC. Every now and then, there are bad apples in every industry; whenever there is a bad apple, they ought to be prosecuted and they ought to have the book thrown at them. Our expectation as a government is that—and the regulatory requirements that are in place right now and will continue to be in place in the future require that—financial advisers will act in the best interests of their clients. That is a statutory requirement that was introduced into the Corporations Act with bipartisan support.

It is a requirement that continues to have our support and will have our support into the future. Obviously government cannot be behind every individual transaction in the private sector everywhere across Australia. We need to ensure that we have the right balance between consumer protection, when it comes to our regulatory arrangements, while making sure that access to high-quality advice is affordable.