The federal member for Robertson, Deborah O’Neill, has been named the new chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.
O’Neill replaces Bernie Ripoll who stepped down as chair following his promotion to Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer under Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s cabinet reshuffle earlier this month.
Last year, O’Neill was named alongside Ripoll as the two members of parliament who had persuaded Financial Services Minister Bill Shorten to reconsider elements of the federal government’s Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.
In his address to the Financial Services Council (FSC) conference last August, Shorten said O’Neill and Ripoll had been “influential” in stating the case against the ban on risk commissions inside of superannuation.
“They [Ripoll and O’Neill] put some views to me in favour of leaving commissions on individually-advised products,” Shorten said at the time.
Last week, Ripoll told InvestorDaily his replacement would be known ahead of a PJC public hearing on Trio Capital’s collapse on Friday.
While O’Neill’s appointment to the PJC became official last week, the PJC’s Trio hearing was postponed.
A spokesperson for the PJC said the postponement of the public hearing occurred as Senate was sitting, and therefore the PJC committee would not be at full capacity. The public hearing will be rescheduled.
The PJC has been heavily involved in consultation with Australia’s financial services industry over the past two years.
It has conducted a number of financial services inquiries, including an examination of the federal government’s Future of Financial Advice and Stronger Super reforms as well as the collapse of Trio.
