When the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced her new-look ministry, one question immediately ran through the financial planning community: Who is Bill Shorten?
For the past three years or so, the financial services sector has been well served by Chris Bowen. While proposals and reforms put forward by Bowen were not universally embraced, very few people really believed he’d done a bad job as Minister. They might not have agreed with the policies he formulated, but his approach was consultative and inclusive.
You only had to be at the Financial Services Council (FSC) national conference in August to understand how much that approach was appreciated. FSC members aren’t necessarily the Labor Party’s natural constituency, yet there was widespread acknowledgement that Bowen’s approach to his portfolio had been highly effective.
And there was a pronounced difference in the performances at the conference of Bowen and his Liberal counterpart, shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey. Bowen offered a vision and long-term policy framework for financial services; Hockey offered no long-term, coherent vision for financial services policy. The FSC conference heard a lot about what a Coalition government would not do, but not a lot about what they would do.
Partly that’s a benefit of incumbency: it’s easier to outline what you’re going to do once you have all the tools and resources you need to actually do something. Even so, a change of government, and a radical change in policy, wasn’t something people in the conference audience were crazy about.
Before the election, a member of the FSC board told me he believed the worst outcome for policy continuity would be a change of government and a new minister; the second-worst out- come would be the Government returned, but a new minister; and the best outcome would be the Government returned, and Bowen remaining in the portfolio.
So Bowen’s move to the Immigration portfolio has got the industry wondering what to expect from his successor, Bill Shorten.
At least we have continuity of government, more or less. It remains to be seen how effective a minority government actually can be, but we can’t say we don’t know what the broad policy agenda is.
Where Shorten may differ from Bowen is on his views of the details – things like commissions on risk products, the opt-in proposals, and the banning of all forms of volume rebates.
Shorten’s appointment has been received predictably by the industry. The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) said his “experience during the Beaconsfield mine disaster in 2006 means he is likely to have exceptional insight into life’s uncertainties”. The subtext here, one supposes, is that the AFA hopes Shorten will be well-disposed towards life insurance.
And the Self-Managed Super Fund Profes- sionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA) hopes Shorten will look favourably on superannuation:“We note and support Minister Shorten’s comments that improvements to superannuation represent an opportunity to increase the quality of life of all Australians and deliver us a sustain- able future,” SPAA said.
“We are confident Mr Shorten’s background as trustee of two superannuation funds will stand him in good stead in his new role developing policies to benefit the broader retirement savings sector.”
Although Shorten appeared at the FSC conference, in a session opposite the Coalition’s Kerry O’Dwyer, we still don’t know a lot about how he’s likely to approach the job.Shorten represents Maribyrnong, in Melbourne’s north-west, and he was re-elected with 55 per cent of the primary vote there (translatingto 65 per cent on a two-party preferred basis).
He was educated at Xavier College in Mel- bourne. He has a law degree and an MBA. He’s a former national secretary of the 135,000-member Australian Workers’ Union (succeeded by Paul Howes). He’s one of the “faceless men” that the opposition is fond of referring to as being responsible for the overthrow of Kevin Rudd. And, of course, he’s the son-in-law of the Governor General.
Bowen will be a tough act to follow; but the fact that the Prime Minister has appointed to this portfolio one of the Labor Party’s rising stars shows that it’s certainly still being paid the attention it deserves.
But the proof of any pudding is in the eating; in the weeks and months ahead, Shorten will be on a steep learning curve as he grapples with the intricacies of his new portfolio and with the reform agenda (and its reception). He has a rela- tively short time to win the trust and confidence of the industry.
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Speaking of new faces, there’s one at Profes- sional Planner. On September 6, Krystine Lumanta joined the magazine as a journalist. Krystine is currently completing a journalism degree, and has experience in superannuation fund administration. She’ll be writing for both the magazine and our website, Professional Planner Online.
Krystine will be out and about, meeting people in the industry and attending conference events. Keep an eye out for her, and say hi.
