After 714 days in the Parliament, the House of Representatives has now passed the Corporations Amendment (Financial Advice Measures) Bill 2015 and in doing so, locked in the defeat of the Government’s worst attacks on consumer protections.

The final Bill made some small technical amendments to Labor’s Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) package and ditched a very bad watering down of consumer protections proposed by the Abbott-Turnbull Government.

The Opposition has declared victory over the Government’s proposed amendments to Labor’s Future of Financial Advice package, which would have seen:

• The requirement for financial advisers to act in the “best interest” of clients removed;

• Advisers allowed to continue to charge fees indefinitely, without receiving consent from their clients; and

• Conflicted remuneration allowed on general advice and certain types of personal advice.

Labor and Australian consumers have won and we have cemented the most important reforms to financial services in a generation.

We acknowledge the important contributions of many people for their work in the development and protection of the FoFA package, including Bernie Ripoll.

Labor is pleased to see an end to the chaos that was the Government’s handling of this Bill and calls on the Government to not attempt any further changes which would weaken protections for consumers in financial advice.