Login
ISCOVER
Senator Eric Abetz has praised the behind-the-scenes work of brokers and other financial services for bringing the economy back from the brink.
Speaking at the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) conference on the Gold Coast last week, the Minister for Employment and Leader of the Government in the Senate said the government wanted to work with “wealth facilitators like finance brokers to get the economy back on track”.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
“The government wants to make procedures more small business-friendly. We want to listen more to small business,” he said.
“We will all benefit if the economy buzzes along.”
The senator said he was aware of the important role brokers played in facilitating wealth, and committed the government to playing its part by reducing red tape and stimulating the housing sector.
“The first priority of the new parliament will be to repeal the carbon tax,” he declared, claiming that the tax “adds $5,000 to every new dwelling”.
Meanwhile, FBAA chief executive officer Peter White said the conference was “absolutely enormous”.
“We had speakers from ASIC talking about compliance, then legal professionals following them talking about compliance and what to look out for – and we had some great feedback from brokers,” Mr White said.
Industry heavyweight Steve Western, ex-general manager at Challenger and Advantedge and now working for Barclays Bank abroad, gave a surprise presentation via a video taken in South Africa.
“The broker representation was absolutely phenomenal, and the location was just perfect,” Mr White said, adding that the FBAA was pleased with the Sea World and Movie World venues and planned to make them the association's unofficial ‘home’.
“This will give people a bit of certainty – instead of announcing where the event is late in the year, people will know that November on the Gold Coast will be the FBAA conference,” he said.
