YES MINISTER, we cannot let this happen in 2024….
A common problematic outcome over the decades for Political parties returning to power after 2 terms or more in Opposition is immediately recruiting staff into their office once they form Government. They have operated on a skeletal staff for 6 – 9 years then face a recruitment strategy crisis amid an expectation to ‘hit the ground running’ to fulfill their political promises.
At this point, the Canberra Bureaucrats then ‘save the day’ by placing a myriad of CV’s on the new Ministers desk for selection. The under pressure new Minister then understandably takes the easiest option and selects new staff members from the CV pile….
The outcome? Instantly the Ministers office is infiltrated with Canberra Bureaucrats influencing decisions to suit their agenda not necessarily anyone else’s.
The masterful role of Sir Humphry in YES MINISTER lays it all out. Have you ever wondered why the PM salary is around half of the Canberra Chief Bureaucrats packages?
Answer – Politicians come and go, the Bureaucrats are always there…..
This is precisely why we need to achieve bipartisan agreement leading into the next election to get our desired changes into law, we cannot have todays ‘Sir Humphry’ equivalents manipulating outcomes to suit the Canberra agenda.
This objective starts with Advisers engaging and educating their clients on why the current conditions are a threat to their financial position and what they can do about it. This will intimidate all Politicians.
The Advice community needs the backing of their clients to have maximum power in Canberra.
Below are 2 proposed letters for consideration and of course adjust where you see fit. The first is from you to the client and the second from your client to the local sitting member.
All sitting member email addresses are online and are of this structure Firstname.surname.MP@aph.gov.au
This strategy will greatly assist the Advice community and their clients cause, we need your support.
Adviser to client…..
Dear client, we need your help to drive down the cost of advice to avoid any future price escalations that will directly and negatively affect your position. Both direct and indirect costs have steadily risen over the past 7 years where Politicians and Canberra Bureaucrats have made poor and unnecessary regulatory decisions that you are ultimately paying for via higher advice or funds management costs.
We need to remind and inform Canberra that you will no longer tolerate these price escalations and in fact you want amendments in place to reduce costs or suffer the consequences at the ballot box.
Can you please consider sending an email/letter to [sitting member in their electorate] with the message below. Please feel free to adjust the content where necessary. The email address is……
Regards,
Client to the local member…..
Dear Parliamentarian, we are concerned with the escalation of Financial Advice and Risk Insurance premium costs over the past 7 years. Our Financial Adviser informs us that the primary cause for cost escalation is the imposition of an unwieldy compliance regime and the ASIC Levy that we as clients are ultimately paying for.
We want the ASIC Levy eliminated and compliance structure greatly mitigated.
The dramatic increase in Risk Insurance premiums are also a significant concern to our family. Our Financial Adviser recommends the most efficient solution is to return the industry back to pre – Life Insurance Framework [LIF] legislation conditions and let consumers decide on whether they want to pay under a fee for service or commission based renumeration structure.
We don’t want a Bureaucrat in Canberra deciding how we should be paying for advice.
We are demanding that you take our concerns seriously, we will be seeking an opinion and political direction from our Financial Adviser leading into the upcoming Election before we decide on who we will support at the ballot box.
Peter Johnston | Executive Director
