So the Abbott government has succeeded in allowing sellers of financial products, such as financial planners, to receive incentive payments from fund managers so long as they are not a described as “commissions”.

The reforms have overturn laws passed by the previous Labor government that imposed a blanket ban on incentive payments to planners when they give general advice to clients.

It looks as if the Murray inquiry members were concerned about the adequacy of existing consumer protection measures.

The Murray committee’s interim report asserts that disclosure rules in the financial advice industry have failed consumers and that current legislation may need to be overhauled to recognise sales practices that pervade the industry.

In favouring the banks by winding back consumer protection in financial advice the the Abbott government’s bizarre desire is dumping the interests of the demographic which has been and will in the future be most adversely affected by bad financial advice---- Coalition voters.

The Abbott government calls winding back of Labor’s FoFA reforms “reducing red tape”. The reality is that the winding back supports the banks at the expense of consumers.

The Murray Inquiry says that "The Inquiry considers the principle of consumers being able to access advice that helps them meet their financial needs is undermined by the existence of conflicted remuneration structures in financial advice. "

In spite of Palmer’s huffing and puffing about protecting the little people from the finance industry he banks and AMP, who control more than 70 per cent of financial planning, have got what they wanted. Advisers will have to tick a set of check boxes that they have gone through certain things with their clients.

Bank tellers will be able to flog their employer’s superannuation funds to unsuspecting customers under the guise of it being only “general” advice.

There will be no disclosure about how the teller is rewarded for making the sale. It is a big win for the banks

Palmer has traded Palmer United Party support for practically nothing in return. Most of the “changes” to the government’s diluting of Labor's Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) laws are simply re-statements of what the government intended anyway.

The bank lobbyists got to him

FOFA reforms were put in place by the previous Labor government in response to a number of wealth management firm failures.

One of the main issues in the mix was poor advice given by financial advisers to Australians, many of whom had their life savings placed into high risk investments, where returns did not meet expectations, and worse, in some cases, people were outright deceived.

There have also been reports of poor or fraudulent advice to investors, where advisers recommended their own solutions, even if they were not the best for the investor concerned.