Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Review of Prudential Decisions) Bill 2008, which I will address very briefly as I am due in the chair soon. The Financial Sector Legislation Amendment (Review of Prudential Decisions) Bill has measures which simplify and improve existing processes and add accountability. On those grounds, the Australian Democrats support the bill without amendment. The bill amends the Banking Act 1959, the Insurance Act 1973, the Life Insurance Act 1995 and the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993, collectively known as the prudential acts. It amends the Retirement Savings Accounts Act 1997 and the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001. It aims to improve the efficiency, transparency and consistency of the process for disqualifying individuals from operating financial sector entities and enhances the accountability of the regulator for administrative decision making under the prudential acts, the RSA Act and the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act.

The amendments introduce a court based process for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority when seeking to disqualify an individual from operating an entity regulated by APRA. They streamline APRA’s directions powers where appropriate, remove ministerial consent from and expand the availability of merits review for appropriate administrative decisions made by APRA under the prudential acts and the FS(CoD)A. There are four schedules. Withdrawing the minister from particular consent requirements and increasing APRA’s powers are good advances in terms of the appropriate delegation of powers and the proper responsibility of an independent, objective authority in these matters. These changes were developed under the previous government’s aegis and are very useful and helpful in the proper operation of APRA’s responsibilities. Therefore, the Democrats will support the bill in full.