Senator CORMANN (Western Australia—Minister for Finance) (14:01): I thank Senator O'Neill for that question. Opposition senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order on my left! Senator CORMANN: It will not surprise her when I say that I do not accept and do not agree with the characterisation of what happened in the chamber last night. What happened in the chamber last night is that the Senate supported good improvements to our financial advice laws, good improvements that deliver benefits for consumers and small-business financial advisers. The coalition delivered on the commitments it took to the last election. The Senate supported our changes to financial advice laws through regulations. After we registered and tabled the regulations, as I always said we would do, we had a range of conversations with senators on the crossbench, including senators from the Palmer United Party. Mr Palmer, as leader of the Palmer United Party, put forward some suggestions on how our improvements could be made even better. And the government considered those suggestions. We recognised that they were sensible suggestions. We decided to adopt those suggestions, and we very transparently put all of the detail on the public record. As a result of the changes that were supported by the Senate yesterday, access to financial advice for consumers will be more affordable, because we have cut all the unnecessary and costly red tape. We have maintained all of the important consumer protections that matter for consumers. We have got rid of the unnecessary and costly opt-in requirement forcing people to re-sign contracts with their advisers on a regular basis. We got rid of the retrospective additional annual fee disclosure requirement. We provided certainty around the operation of the 'best interests' duty. We provided certainty around the availability of scaled advice. These are all good, sensible reforms which will improve the regulatory settings for financial services in Australia.