IT’S TIME
In 1972, this IT’S TIME slogan was used by Gough Whitlam to spearhead the ALP political campaign after 23 years in opposition since the defeat of Ben Chifley in 1949. It was a highly successful strategy.
We think this is a symbolic path the Advice community should be taking in Canberra without the ALP reference. After 17 years of political abuse by all sides of Politics we need to send a clear message to Canberra we have had enough of Politicians and Bureaucrats unnecessarily meddling in our profession. These people are public servants who should be acting in the best interests of the public, and unfortunately some are only looking after themselves.
The AIOFP is a not-for-profit Association regulated by the South Australian Government, NOT ASIC. This allows us to address the sensitive questions and issues without being intimidated by Canberra Bureaucrats. Please consider joining us if you are not a member, the greater numbers we have the greater affect we will have.
The latest insult of a former Dixon Executive who presided over their Advice failure being ‘parachuted’ into the Director of the Financial Adviser Regulation Unit role in Treasury before the Dixon collapse is galling. This has occurred during a period where the Advice community are being forced to unfairly fund Dixon losses for some Bureaucrats.
This demonstrates the arrogance and hubris some Canberra Bureaucrats have developed against our Profession and Consumers in general, it must end.
It is time for the Advice Community to stand up politically and push back. There are over 40,000 people working in our sector caring for over 2,000,000 clients, formidable and politically intimidating numbers once we all act as one unified group. We also need to establish an ‘Election Fund’ to make strategic donations that assists our position going forward. The mere fact that we have one, regardless of its content can and will intimidate, now is the time to establish it.
Attached is a suggested letter to your clients and one they can send to their local sitting Politician to get their attention. We need our members clients to also pushback over the cost of advice which ultimately they are paying for.
The AIOFP is different to all other Associations. Unlike those who ‘sit on the political fence’ our founding objective is to act in the best interests of its members and their clients without fear or favour. This literally means we will and do change our political support where justified. We considered the Frydenberg lead Liberals leading into the 2022 election were the ‘enemy’ and the ALP our ‘friends’. That has now changed, the Libs acknowledge they were too hard and are remorseful, Minister Jones has greatly disappointed after a promising start with the Education Pathways/10 year rule, it has become quite obvious the Minister is a captive of Treasury Bureaucrats and other ‘masters’ in Canberra.
The best time to get maximum political leverage in Canberra is leading into a Federal Election particularly one that will be close and bitterly fought, a perfect scenario to negotiate favourable outcomes for consumers and Advisers.
A sporting parlance is best used for our position since the 2007 Ripoll Enquiry/Storm Financial fiasco, if you are playing a contact sport and an opposition player physically/psychologically intimidates you, what do you do? Retaliate to send a message it won’t be tolerated or do nothing and it will more than likely continue. We are of course the later, we keep on taking the hits with no retaliation to intimidate the Politicians to think twice about doing it again.
We must put an end to this.
The Politicians are not particularly scared of 11,000 angry Advisers around the nation but they are genuinely scared of our circa 2 million clients getting engaged in Politics and realising the escalating cost of Advice is coming straight out of their pockets……this is particularly so for all Politicians in marginal seats. Albanese is currently facing a minority Government but a further loss of seats may see a one term Government.
The only way to intimidate the Canberra Bureaucrats is with the National Anti – Corruption Commission, which we have commenced over the Dixon fiasco. The old saying of ‘Politicians come and go, but Bureaucrats are always there…’ is so true. One of the only times we can eliminate the Bureaucrats influence is with intimidated Politicians agreeing to either amend current policies or drop them altogether leading into elections. Self – interest is a powerful influence.
Australia’s democratic process is severely compromised by donations but there is no political will to eliminate them. We must therefore ‘fight fire with fire’ by having access to capital to influence outcomes that suits our members agenda.
Click here to view a suggested letter going to clients and one from you to them, details on the Election Fund shortly.
