The opposition has formed a taskforce to work towards reducing the amount of unnecessary paperwork and compliance burden of small businesses, with financial services one area it believes a significant improvement can be made.
The taskforce, which includes Senator Arthur Sinodinos and lower house MP Kelly O'Dwyer, have been given the job of compiling a report on the current situation.
"The big gains are in areas we think like financial services - in terms of FOFA (Future of Financial Advice)," Sinodinos told delegates at the Association of Financial Advisers Budget in Reply function on Friday.
He highlighted a few specific areas and examples the taskforce has already identified in financial services where improvements could be made.
"When we've been out doing consultations we get people telling us things like this - a financial planner has to hold up to 16 pages on each client in order to comply with AUSTRAC regulations. But none of this information is sent to AUSTRAC, it's simply kept at the premises," he said.
"The average financial planner has gone from seeing three clients a day in the 1980s and they're now seeing three clients a week. According to one financial planner one hour's consultation with a client is now equal to 10 hours of documentation."
The report will be completed in July.
Meanwhile, also present at the AFA briefing, opposition assistant treasury spokesman Mathias Cormann used the forum to reiterate the coalition's stance on FOFA and its commitment to scrap some of the problematic elements.
"Our policy includes an unequivocal commitment to remove opt-in no ifs, no buts because we think it adds unnecessary complexity, unnecessary red tape and unnecessarily increased costs for both consumers and financial advisers," Cormann said.
Other items the opposition have targeted for attention are the simplifying of annual fees and disclosure requirements, an improvement to the definition of the best interest duty and a further refinement of the ban on commissions on risk insurance in superannuation.
"The problem with FOFA is the bad bits are really bad," Cormann said.
