THE Queensland Resources Council has welcomed the official opening of Sun Metals’ ground-breaking solar project near Townsville.

“This is yet another case study where Queensland is leading the way in making best use of our rich energy resources,” QRC chief executive Ian Macfarlane said.

“Sun Metals is the first heavy industrial power user to be investing in its own renewable energy source on a commercial scale.

“Reliability and affordability of energy supply are non-negotiable for industries such as zinc refining.

“Through this investment generating approximately 125 MW, Sun Metals has provided further resilience to the refinery and security for its workers.

“Queensland shows there’s no need to play favourites when it comes to our energy sources.

“Coal, gas and renewables all have their role to play in making the most of our energy mix. This in turn delivers the most affordable and reliable power for homes and businesses.”

www.qrc.org.au

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ON FRIDAY, August 17 2018, Parliament’s Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit will hold three public hearings.

The public hearings are part of the Committee’s ongoing work in considering the governance and financial performance of Commonwealth agencies.

The Committee will first hear from representatives of private sector contracting businesses as it continues its inquiry into how government agencies report on their use of contractors, based on the Auditor-General’s report No. 19 (2017-18).

Following this, the Committee will hold its first hearing for its inquiry into Australian Government security arrangements. This hearing will discuss issues raised in the Auditor-General’s report No. 38 (2017-18) Mitigating Insider Threats through Personnel Security.

This audit examined the effectiveness of centralised security vetting arrangements for government personnel. In addition, the audit looked at how well government agencies are complying with personnel security requirements.

The final hearing will be based on the Auditor-General’s report No. 39 (2017-18) Naval Construction Programs – Mobilisation, which considered the Government’s planning for a continuous naval shipbuilding program. The shipbuilding program was audited due to its high cost, significance to Australia’s defence, and significant implementation risks.

Committee Chair Senator Dean Smith said scrutinising Government expenditure on behalf of the Parliament was one of the Committee’s key responsibilities.

”Inquiries such as these consider not only the financial effectiveness of government programs but also how well they perform against other key criteria, for example in complying with protocols designed to ensure the safety and security of government personnel,” Senator Smith said.

Public hearings: Friday August 17 2018, Committee Room 1R1, Parliament House, Canberra

8.30am to 10.15am: Audit Report No. 19 (2017-18) Australian Government Procurement Contract Reporting

10.45am to 11.45am: Audit Report No. 38 (2017-18) Mitigating Insider Threats through Personnel Security         

12.00pm to 12.45pm: Audit Report No. 39 (2017-18) Naval Construction Programs - Mobilisation

The hearing will be broadcast live at aph.gov.au/live. The hearing program is available from the Committee website.

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THE Institute of Public Accountants (IPA) has today announced that it is seeking member feedback on advocating for a return of the ‘accountants’ exemption’ to provide financial advice related to self-managed superannuation.

“Since the accountant’s exemption was removed on 1 July 2016, we believe some Australians have simply opted out of advice altogether which may ultimately place their financial future at risk,” said IPA chief executive officer, Andrew Conway.   

“Simply, trusted accountants have been hamstrung, unable to respond to clients’ questions, particularly around superannuation.

“The public rely on their annual interaction with their accountant to finalise their tax affairs and seek guidance on issues which unfortunately is now considered financial advice as part of this process.

“Without this guidance many will receive no financial advice at all for important matters such as retirement planning.  Before Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) became law less than one in five had any interaction with a financial planner.

“FoFA has failed to achieve its policy objective of making financial advice affordable and removing accountants from providing any assistance has made the situation worse.

“As trusted advisers accountants can play an important role in helping clients manage their financial affairs and revisiting the accountant’s exemption is paramount to restoring access to basic financial advice. 

“Seventy percent of the population and 95 percent of all businesses have a trusted accountant behind them and denying them access to any guidance is not in the public interest.

“We have always maintained that we will act in member’s best interests, and recently members have been asking us to take the issue of the removal of ‘accountant’s exemption’ up with the government.

“The principle at play here is ensuring Australians have access to affordable financial advice.

“The capacity of an accountant to provide advice on self-managed superannuation funds has long been held as not being a systemic risk to the integrity of the financial services system.

“We will engage with members over the next week to inform our advocacy and representation to the Minister to ensure our views are heard. I would encourage any member of the IPA or any other practitioner to make contact with me if they wish to make their views known,” said Mr Conway.

About the Institute of Public Accountants

The IPA, formed in 1923, is one of Australia’s three legally recognised professional accounting bodies.  In late 2014, the IPA acquired the Institute of Financial Accountants in the UK and formed the IPA Group, with more than 36,000 members and students in over 80 countries.  The IPA Group is the largest SME focused accountancy organisation in the world. The IPA is a member of the International Federation of Accountants, the Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board and the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants. 

publicaccountants.org.au

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THE House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics will hold a public hearing with the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Dr Philip Lowe, in Canberra from 9.30am to 12:30pm on Friday, 17 August 2018.

Since the previous hearing with the RBA in February 2018, monetary policy has remained accommodative with a cash rate of 1.50 percent, following the RBA’s recent decision to leave interest rates unchanged.

Commenting on the decision to keep rates on hold, the RBA Governor said low interest rates are "continuing to support the Australian economy’ and that ‘further progress in reducing unemployment and having inflation return to target is expected, although this progress is likely to be gradual".

The Governor expects growth in the Australian economy to average just above 3 percent in 2018 and 2019, which should further reduce spare capacity in labour markets.

In its August Statement on Monetary Policy, the RBA noted softer than expected inflationary pressures in the Australian economy in the near term, and said it did not expect underlying inflation to reach the middle of its 2-3 percent target band until the end of its forecast period in 2020.

The Chair of the House Economics Committee, Sarah Henderson, said, "The committee will examine these issues in more detail and will ask the RBA if it remains confident that current monetary policy settings will encourage growth and inflation consistent with the target for coming years."

Public hearing details: 9.30am to 12.30pm, Friday, 17 August 2018, Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra

The hearing will be webcast at www.aph.gov.au/live

FINTECH AUSTRALIA is pleased to announce that the Victorian Government will increase its support for the startup and FinTech communities by signing on to be the major sponsor of Intersekt for both 2018 and 2019, as tickets for this year’s event go on sale today.

FinTech Australia Chief Executive Officer, Brad Kitschke said, “The Victorian Government and Minister Dalidakis continue to demonstrate their leadership and support for startups and the FinTech ecosystem, through the sponsorship of this important conference for the next two years.

"Intersekt is a must-attend for anyone involved in FinTech and we are extremely excited that our partnership with Minister Dalidakis and the Andrew’s Government will Melbourne the home of Intersekt for the next two years.

"Intersekt is great value for money. The early bird prices for the 3-day conference are discounted heavily as we want as many startups as possible to attend. FinTech Australia is a not-for-profit industry body, and we reinvest in our members and the ecosystem.

We are doing our best to make 2018 better than ever, with three days of jam-packed value from the 29th to 31st of October,” Mr Kitschke said.

Victorian Government Minister for Trade and Investment, Innovation and the Digital Economy Philip Dalidakis said he looked forward to opening the conference and to the ongoing partnership with FinTech Australia.

“Attracting delegates from the Asia Pacific region and beyond, Intersekt brings together the most creative minds in the Fintech sector," Mr Dalidakis said.

"Innovations in financial technology are revolutionising the way we do business and are crucial to Victoria’s future economy and jobs.

"I look forward to joining FinTech Australia in welcoming all delegates to this not to be missed conference in October.“  Minister Dalidakis said.

FinTech Australia was also pleased to announce that LaTrobe University will be a Gold Sponsor of the event and its exclusive education partner. 

CEO Brad Kitschke praised the University's leadership in FinTech education and welcomed their support for Intersekt.

This year’s conference will feature an official opening by Minister Dalidakis, the launch of the EY FinTech Census Report, the launch of FinTech Australia’s open banking campaign, an investor matching deal day, bringing together startups and investors, and a graduate match powered byCSIRO Data61’s Ribit.net and LatTrobe University for tertiary students looking for roles and FinTechs looking for potential employees.  

Tickets can be purchased and delegate registrations lodged at www.intersektfestival.com.

Early bird prices are available all throughout August.

About FinTech Australia

FinTech Australia Ltd. is the peak body for the Australian financial services, technology and innovation - Fintech industry.  We were founded by Startups, and are a startup ourselves. We work with founders, startups, scaleups and the Fintech ecosystem. We represent our members and advocate for outcomes that facilitate the growth of the Fintech ecosystem with the goal of making Australia a leading Fintech market. For more information visit www.fintechaustralia.org.au

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FEDERAL Treasurer Scott Morrison said the Turnbull Government was  continuing to protect the integrity of Australia's corporate tax system by tightening the rules on stapled structures.

"These entities have been used by foreigners to reduce the tax paid on the income they earn from their Australian investments," Mr Morrison said.

"Today I released exposure draft legislation dealing with additional integrity rules that will apply to stapled entities that access the infrastructure concession and/or transitional arrangements. This will give effect to the policy announced on 28 June 2018."

The conditions include:

• The extension of existing integrity rules that apply to Managed Investment Trusts (MITs) to ensure that all staples eligible for the transition rules or the infrastructure concession are required to comply with the existing non arm’s length income rule; and
• The introduction of statutory caps on the amount of cross-staple rent that is able to access the concessional 15 per cent rate of withholding tax (available under the MIT regime) for economic infrastructure projects during the transition or concession period.

"The staples measures demonstrate the Turnbull Government’s continued action to protect the integrity of Australia’s corporate tax system and to ensure that foreign investors pay their fair share of tax," Mr Morrison said.

The exposure draft legislation and explanatory materials are available on the Treasury website.  The Treasurer said the Government encouraged all interested parties to make a submission. Submissions close on 14 August 2018. 

www.treasury.gov.au

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AMP, ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac have now paid or offered customers $222.3 million in refunds and interest for failing to provide advice to customers while charging them ongoing advice fees.

This represents a further $6.4m in payments and offers from these institutions since the last ASIC media release (17-438MR) on the fees for no service (FFNS) project, which provided compensation figures as at 31 October 2017.

In addition, ASIC is overseeing FFNS remediation programs by other Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that have identified potential FFNS failings, including Bendigo Financial Planning Ltd, Police Financial Services Ltd (trading as BankVic), State Super Financial Services Australia Limited (trading as StatePlus), and Yellow Brick Road Wealth Management Pty Ltd. The total amount now paid or offered to customers across both groups of licensees is $259.6m.

ASIC is also aware that five AFS licensees or institutions have provisioned for future remediation payments, with four of these to date providing to ASIC amounts for future remediation (see below in notes). If all of these provisions are paid in full, FFNS remediation may exceed $850m.

The table provides compensation payments and estimates reported to ASIC as at 30 June 2018. Some institutions' total estimates have changed since ASIC’s previous media release as they have further investigated the compensation required and, in some cases, identified additional failures needing remediation.

Source: Data reported by the AFS licensees to ASIC as at 30 June 2018.

Table notes

(1)  This includes amounts paid to customers as well as amounts paid to unclaimed monies and charities (for example, where the licensee was unable to contact the customer).

(2)  Some estimates exclude interest. Estimates may change, as each entity further investigates the failures. Some entities do not yet have estimates of future remediation, but have provisioned for (or are in the process of provisioning for) FFNS remediation in their financial statements. The provisions may include amounts already paid.

(3) In addition, on 27 July 2018, AMP announced that it has provisioned in relation to potential remediation in relation to ASIC report 499. AMP has advised ASIC that its pre-tax estimate for FFNS remediation is $240m, or $360m including interest. This estimate covers all the advice licensees within the AMP group (both the salaried advisers and the aligned dealer groups) and covers remediation for the period up to 31 December 2017.

(4) ANZ has advised ASIC that it has provisioned for FFNS remediation, but has not yet provided details of that provision to ASIC.

(5) NAB has provisioned a further $65m across its financial advice licensees relating to FFNS remediation and project costs.

(6) Though Westpac has not provided ASIC with an estimate for future remediation, it informed ASIC that it has provisioned approximately $24m relating to FFNS remediation for the 2017-18 financial year for Westpac Banking Corporation, of which 3.24m had been paid as at 30 June 2018. This provision does not cover future periods, or other Westpac owned AFS licensees.

(7) StatePlus has not provided ASIC with an estimate of future FFNS remediation. However, it has provisioned a further $53m relating to FFNS remediation, which it expects will cover both further FFNS customer remediation and remediation project expenses.

(8) The table shows compensation paid by NAB's superannuation trustee, NULIS Nominees (Australia) Limited (NULIS), for two breaches involving failures in relation to the provision of general advice services to superannuation members who paid general advice fees. (Other fees referred to in this release relate to personal advice). This remediation was completed in 2017. As announced by ASIC on 2 February 2017 ASIC imposed additional licence conditions on NULIS following this and another breach: ASIC MR 17-022. The failure was by MLC Nominees Pty Ltd and MLC Limited. Whilst on 1 July 2016 the superannuation assets governed by MLC Nominees were transferred by successor fund transfer to NULIS, and on 3 October 2016 NAB divested 80% of its shareholding in the MLC Limited Life Insurance business, accountability for this remediation activity (including compensation) remains within the NAB Group.

(9) On 26 July 2018 NULIS announced a further remediation program relating to general advice fees. This amount excludes interest.

How to remediate FFNS failures

ASIC has published an Information Sheet 232 (INFO 232) that sets out ASIC’s expectations of AFS licensees remediating FFNS breaches. 

• Read the information sheet

Next steps

ASIC will continue to monitor the above FFNS licensees compensation programs.

In addition, ASIC will continue to supervise the further reviews for those entities subject to the FFNS project, to determine whether any additional instances of fees being charged without advice being provided are identified. ASIC expects to publish a media release on their further reviews in the coming months.

Background

In October 2016, ASIC released Report 499 Financial advice: fees for no service (REP 499). The report described systemic failures of the advice divisions of the largest banks and AMP, as well as some of their product issuers, to ensure that ongoing advice services were provided to customers who paid fees to receive these services, the failure of advisers to provide such services, and the failure of product issuers to switch off advice fees of customers who did not have a financial adviser.

At the time of the publication of the report compensation arising from the fee-for-service failures reported to ASIC was approximately $23.7 million, which had been paid, or agreed to be paid, to more than 27,000 customers.

ASIC has published updates to the above remediation in May 2017 (17-145MR) and in December 2017 (17-438MR).

MoneySmart

Customers who are paying ongoing advice fees for services they do not need can ask for those fees to be switched off. Customers who have paid fees for services they did not receive may be entitled to refunds and compensation, and should lodge a complaint through the bank or AFS licensee's internal dispute resolution system or the Financial Ombudsman Service.

ASIC's MoneySmart website explains how customers can check they are getting the financial advice they paid for. It also has a financial advice toolkit to help customers navigate the financial advice process and understand what they should expect from an adviser, and useful information about how to make a complaint.

www.asic.gov.au

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THE Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said the CSIRO report released yesterday indicates that the time has come to legalise nicotine e-cigarettes in Australia.

The e-cigarettes, smoking and health literature review indicates that e-cigarettes can assist some smokers in quitting traditional cigarettes, and provides evidence for a range of health improvements when conventional tobacco smokers make the switch.

Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the ARA, said the access to less harmful alternatives is a no-brainer for Australians, and the Government should get on with regulating these products in Australia.

“The findings in this report show support for the ARA’s position - e-cigarettes and other vaping products can be used as a quitting aid for smokers,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“As e-cigarettes are less harmful, the CSIRO report showed health improvements in smokers who used e-cigarettes instead of conventional cigarettes.”

The ARA believe that without access to less-harmful alternatives, many smokers will continue to find it difficult to quit.

“According to the CSIRO’s findings, it is clear that e-cigarettes are preferred by some smokers as a cessation method as trials have found nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective at reducing conventional smoking than nicotine free e-cigarettes or no e-cigarettes,” Mr Zimmerman said.

The ARA believe that allowing the regulated sale of nicotine e-cigarettes will also satisfy the CSIRO’s calls for further monitoring and research.

“When restrictions force consumers to import these products, rather than purchase them legally at home, consumers are exposed to the risk of unregulated and potentially unsafe products,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“The Government should listen to the CSIRO and alleviate concerns about unregulated usage by allowing retailers to sell nicotine e-cigarettes legally. This will provide regulators and authorities the opportunity to conduct further studies and address any fears.”

Along with the CSIRO’s report, a Crosby Textor poll conducted in June found almost 50 percent of Australians and more than two thirds of smokers support the legalisation of e-cigarettes and personal vaporisers in Australia.

“The Crosby Textor poll showed that 70% of Australians and 67% of smokers agreed that vaporisers were a way to completely phase out cigarette smoking in Australia,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“The CSIRO’s report provides further justification for the Government to show leadership in improving the health of smokers by lifting the restrictions on e-cigarettes.”

The CSIRO’s report follows the recent Inquiry into the Use of Electronic Cigarettes and Personal Vaporisers in Australia. The ARA made a submission to the Inquiry, calling for the legalisation of these harm-reduction alternatives, as current restrictions on the sale of nicotine-based vaping products may lead to consumers importing these products from overseas or turning to black markets.

“The number of people who are already importing nicotine-based e-cigarettes from overseas is growing, which translates into a significant loss of revenue to overseas retailers,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“Allowing retailers the opportunity to sell these harm reduction alternatives is a win-win, as it provides health benefits for the community, and economic benefits, including a reduced burden on the health system and crucial support for local retailers.”

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is Australia’s largest retail association, representing the country’s $310 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. As Australia’s leading retail peak industry body, the ARA is a strong pro-active advocate for Australian retail and works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 7,500 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

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