A survey by advisers ranks Jones the lowest among policy failures

Financial advisers have lost confidence in Deputy Treasurer and Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones, according to a Financial Newswire survey that found the adviser rated him as the worst performing minister of the last six to hold the portfolio.

At the same time, the survey showed that over 80% of respondents believe that the Albanian Labor government’s performance on financial services policy is very poor and that it has failed to keep its promises.

The survey also confirms that advisers expected the government to implement Quality Advice Assessment (QAR), with respondents citing this as a priority.

In fact, the implementation of QAR was listed ahead of the Compensation Scheme of Last Chance (CSLR), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) levy and the Superannuation Performance Test.

When it came to Jones’ performance compared to that of former ministers, respondents rated former Liberal minister Mathias Cormann the highest, followed by Liberal senator Sinodinos.

However, worryingly for Jones, he finished last, behind Stuart Robert, Jane Hume and Kelly O’Dwyer.

When asked to explain the reasoning behind their responses, advisers seemed to reflect that they had initially hoped Jones would take action to address what he once called the “hot mess” he saw in the financial planning industry.

“The government promised to tackle bureaucratic advice costs and so far it has only increased red tape,” said one respondent.

Another said: “The government came to power on the promise of reducing the cost of financial advice by unraveling the current convoluted compliance system, so it should do what it says and make financial advice more effective.”

In fact, almost half of all respondents indicated that, despite previous promises, the government had failed to deal with the bureaucratic burden during its time in office.