The following is an edited transcript of a speech given to the Professional Planner Advice Policy Summit at Old Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, 10 February 2025.
For the past four years, there has been broad consensus both in our industry and in Canberra – that the notoriously complex laws governing the provision of financial advice in this country, and the waves of arguably well-intentioned but overlapping and onerous regulations introduced over the past decade – have resulted in a situation where professional help with your personal finances has become the exclusive privilege of the wealthy.
Given our unique super system, there was widespread acceptance that this lack of access to advice was not in the national interest, as confirmed by Michelle Levy’s Quality of Advice Review.
Yet, despite seemingly bipartisan support, years later the industry has seen little in the way of regulatory relief. And the new models of accessible and inclusive advice for the masses remain largely elusive.
The point of this summit is not just to debate the merits and political fortunes of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes or DBFO legislation as the Labor government’s response to the QAR became known.
It is about ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory settings in place to underpin a prosperous and healthy advice ecosystem in the decades ahead, at both the professional end and new and emerging forms of mass market advice.
However, insofar as the DBFO legislation has been held up by disagreement within the industry over its implementation and specific elements, we have the right people assembled in this room to try and get the bottom of it and forge a solution.
And we believe we are the right host. As an independent forum for the exchange of ideas in the financial services industry, Conexus Financial is uniquely well-placed to facilitate this conversation.
Through our media and events, we maintain warm and deep relationships across the global financial system from the financial planning sole trader in regional or outer suburban Australia to the chairs and CEOs of international asset managers, pension and sovereign wealth funds.
In this space and on this topic, we also have shared history. Professional Planner was founded 15 years ago to champion what was then a minority group in the industry arguing for higher professional standards and the eradication of investment commissions.
But equally, in more recent years we have been sympathetic to the project to democratise access to advice, and have fought to keep this topic on the national policy and news agenda.
We hear and respect all sides of this debate. The ambition to forge some consensus in this room over coming days is a lofty one.
And it is complicated by the fact that we, the press, and the majority of the attendees to this summit, as well as our broader readership – let alone the general public – have been shut out from the most recent critical stages of consultation on these reforms.
Meanwhile a handful of industry executives, associations and consumer representatives, many of whom you’ll hear from on this stage, have been sworn to secrecy, forced to sign non-disclosure agreements prohibiting them from discussing deliberations even with their members.
We don’t necessarily take issue with these stakeholders for doing so – but we would question whether this is a sign of good government.
Of course, we need to disclose our own self-interest as media, but we would say there are benefits to a public, inclusive and on-the-record debate about the system, regardless of where the legislation lands.
Some have asked us whether hosting this conference was politically expedient, whether it might even be unhelpful in getting the bill passed. I reject that. If the only way to get legislation through is to cook it up in the dark with a room full of lobbyists what does that say about our democratic process? There is always value in transparency.
We would encourage free and frank, but respectful exchange. For the people in the room, this is an opportunity to have a say in the process and to be heard – but also to listen.
We have assembled a wide range of stakeholders, including practicing advisers, practice owners, retail and industry super fund executives, industry and consumer groups and independent experts with wide frames of reference and range of political views.
Our purpose here is not to get a gotcha headline or to foster division. It is to re-centre this conversation behind its consensus starting point – which is that financial advice matters as an area of social and economic policy.
