The fate of the government’s FOFA amendment Bill is now largely in the hands of a few independent and micro-party senators-elect due to take up their seats in parliament from July, who have become prime targets for industry lobbyists in the lead-up to the crucial vote slated for the winter session.
Incoming South Australian crossbencher Bob Day of Family First has revealed to InvestorDaily he ultimately may be a Coalition – and financial planning industry – ally when the Bill goes before the upper house.
“I am generally supportive of the government’s Bill,” Mr Day said, adding that he is a “strong believer in free markets and removing ‘barriers to entry’ to new participants”.
Liberal Democratic Party senator-elect David Leyonhjelm, also speaking to InvestorDaily, said while he has been “lobbied on this [issue]” he has not yet “come to a final position”.
At a recent Financial Planning Association roadshow in Sydney, FPA chief executive Mark Rantall said that while both Mr Day and Mr Leyonhjelm may seemingly be Coalition fellow-travellers on a number of policy items, they are “likely to go their own way” on individual pieces of legislation.
Sitting independent South Australian senator Nick Xenophon – who is a member of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee – also indicated his position on the FOFA report yesterday, having declined to table a supporting or dissenting report in the parliament on Monday evening.
“Contrary to some commentary, I do not support the government’s FOFA repeal legislation, nor the Senate Economics Committee report,” Mr Xenophon wrote in a statement on Twitter yesterday.
The FPA’s Mr Rantall reflected more broadly on the difficulty facing the Abbott government in getting its legislative agenda through the Senate, and by extension, the need for financial services industry lobbyists to broaden their efforts beyond the major parties.
“This government is really going to struggle to get anything through the Senate – we are seeing this with the Budget as well as the mining tax and carbon tax,” Mr Rantall said. “This is the situation we are facing; [the crossbenchers] are the people we need to talk to.”
