John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will get to that, Senator Conroy. You would have been a naughty boy in your younger days! Some 55,000 people arrived in Australia by boat, which was an enormous cost to the taxpayer. But the sad thing was that, on the best figures we have, some 1,100 people lost their lives. We are a generous country. I am proud that in the town in which I live we have refugees, people from Sudan, who actually lived in a tent for eight years before they could make their way to Australia and go through the hurdles of becoming an Australian citizen—and proud Australians they are.

I want to talk about FoFA, which Senator Conroy just raised, a very interesting matter. I was on the original Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, when we inquired into Storm Financial, Opus Prime, Timbercorp, Great Southern and many other terrible financial products that cost so many people so much. The committee was chaired by Mr Bernie Ripoll, the member for Oxley in the other place, from your side of politics, Senator Conroy.

There is no relaxation of the rules; let's get that straight. Section 961 of the FoFA legislation clearly states: 'Financial advice must be in the interests of the client first and foremost.' That is not negotiable. We are removing part G, a catch-all phrase which, on arguments put forward by lawyers, could leave financial planners open to being sued. That would mean higher insurance premiums, more cost. Currently, just one in five Australians now seeks professional financial advice. We need to raise that number, especially with respect to those with self-managed super funds.

The FoFA inquiry has just been completed. I congratulate Senator Whish-Wilson, who played a major role, and former senator Mark Bishop, from Western Australia, who did a magnificent job of chairing the committee. One recommendation of the committee is that we license every financial planner in Australia and give ASIC the power to suspend that licence with just a phone call. If ASIC gets clear information that wrongdoing or forgery is being carried out, with one phone call it will be 'Charlie Brown, you're down to Centrelink next day.' That is a tremendous power and I am confident that we will get that recommendation through.

But I want to talk about the question I asked Senator Abetz in relation to the signing of the trade agreement today with Japan. What a magnificent presentation by Prime Minister Abe, especially in relation to the Second World War—