We are not asking for favours. We are asking for competence, urgency and common sense. For years, advisers, consumers and industry participants have watched the same exhausting routine play out: a problem emerges, warnings are raised, consultations begin, roundtables are held, reports are written, reforms are delayed, and then — only after consumers have already been harmed — the government announces that “more work” is needed.
At some point, this stopped looking like careful policymaking and started looking like a clown show.
The latest is Minister Mulino has reportedly remained uncommitted to the future of key DBFO. The government’s position is that it needs more work.
But the advice profession is entitled to ask: how many times does the system need to “rethink” the obvious?
The purpose of DBFO was meant to be clear: reduce red tape, improve access, and remove cost.
Yet here we are again: delay, ambiguity and uncertainty. Yes, the clown show goes on.
Meanwhile, the advice profession continues to shrink.
Financial decisions are becoming more difficult for ordinary people to navigate.
Yet the number of qualified advisers continues to fall, and the cost of delivering advice continues to rise.
This is not an inconvenience. It is a consumer protection failure by the government.
The Shield and First Guardian collapses were devastating. But punishing the entire advice profession with more complexity because bad actors and a failure of regulators is not reform. It is pure laziness.
The most frustrating part is that honest advisers are already buried under compliance. They operate in the most scrutinised profession in the world.
Yet the bad actors seem to find the cracks anyway.
That should tell us something important: more paperwork for good advisers is not the same thing as better enforcement against bad conduct.
If the government wants to restore trust, it needs to act.
More consultations are not progress.
More regulation is not progress.
More speeches are not progress.
More “rethinking” is not progress.
We need a coherent plan:
->Finalising DBFO reforms
->Targeted enforcement against misconduct
->Transparent regulatory accountability
->A sustainable compensation framework
->A genuine adviser pipeline
The government must decide what it actually wants.
Does it want affordable professional advice?
Does it want a strong advice profession?
Does it want consumers protected before collapses occur?
Does it want regulators to be proactive?
The advice profession is tired of the clown show.
Good advisers are not the enemy of consumer protection. They are the strongest consumer protection tool.
If the government cared, they need to deliver consumer protection and preserve access to quality advice.
Stu Varidel – MFinPlan, CRPC, ABFP, AFP
Principal Financial Adviser | Chartered Retirement Specialist | Accredited Behavioural Finance Professional | Money Guru | Wealth Adviser “2025 Advice Advocate of the Year” |