The government's looming changes to the financial services sector could spark a wave of financial collapses similar to those that occured in 2006-10, which wiped $6 billion in savings from more than 120,000 investors, Industry Super Australia (ISA) claims.
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ISA, which represents 5 million Australians with industry superannuation savings, is bitterly opposed to plans to roll back Future of Financial Advice reforms introduced under Labor.
The government said it was rolling back the reforms to cut red tape and costs for consumers. It wants to water down requirements for financial planners to act in the best interests of clients and scrap rules that would force financial planners to regularly tell clients how much they are paying in fees.
In a briefing paper provided to Fairfax Media, ISA warns that allowing financial planners to take commissions for selling bulk policies and again allowing other forms of conflicted remuneration could pave the way for a financial collapse like Storm or Opes Prime.
''While it may be true that the FoFA laws will not prevent every instance of further financial collapse, by re-permitting conflicted forms of remuneration and lowering conduct requirements [on financial planners] … the likelihood of future scandals are considerably increased, some would say a certainty,'' the paper stated.
A spokeswoman for assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos said: ''We reject outright the claims made by Industry Super Australia. The original FoFA would never have ensured against another financial collapse from happening.''
- with Peter Martin
10 bob back then ... maybe $250,000 today
This may not be the prettiest of banknotes, but that's hardly of concern if you have one tucked away.
When Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie arrived in Sydney at the end of 1809 he faced a colony in crisis. Apart from starvation and basic survival was lack of a stable local currency.
Promissory notes were in use, but easily forged and often dishonoured. A mixture of overseas coins had also been brought to the colony by visiting ships. Anything that could be used for barter was also used as currency, especially rum.
On 8 April, 1817, the Bank of New South Wales opened for business at 10am. One hundred 10 shilling notes were issued on the first day.
One is about to come up for auction with Noble Numismatics at the State Library this month (25-27), and according to the catalogue is ''excessively rare if not unique as a surviving example of Australia's first colonial banknote issued on the day the bank opened - the ultimate Australian banknote icon''.
The estimate, and not a bad return on 10 shillings (£1 was 20 shillings), is $250,000.
