The federal government’s Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms have been handed a potential setback after the Senate called on the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) to review the FOFA drafts.
“My understanding is, and I don’t have the details in front of me, but the Senate has referred it back to the committee for review,” PJC chair Bernie Ripoll told InvestorDaily.
“So what we would do now is go back and review the FOFA bills and make a recommendation.”
Ripoll said the Senate referral had happened two days ago.
“It’s only just been referred to us, I haven’t had time to really look at it yet but it’s obviously something the committee will do and we’ll go from there,” he said.
Ripoll was only able to speculate as to the exact reason why such a referral was made.
“I’m not sure why it has been referred to us but obviously I have my view as to why it has been referred to us. We’ll deal with it according to our charter as a committee,” he said.
While Ripoll was not willing to comment on whether rumblings within Coalition prompted the move by the Senate, it would appear to be the main reason.
On Wednesday, the government admitted to breaching the Office of Best Practice Regulation in changes to its FOFA reforms after questions from the opposition assistant treasury spokesman Senator Mathias Cormann before the Senate Estimates.
