On 4 September 2014, the Senate referred an inquiry into the Scrutiny of Financial Advice to the Senate Economics References Committee for inquiry and report by the first sitting day of July 2015. On 2 March 2015, the Senate granted an extension to the committee to report by 1 February 2016. On 2 February 2016, the committee was granted a further extension to report by 31 August 2016.

The inquiry lapsed at the end of the 44th Parliament.

On 11 October 2016, the Senate agreed to the committee's recommendation that this inquiry be re-adopted in the 45th Parliament.

The committee is due to report by 30 June 2017.

All correspondence and evidence previously received for this inquiry has been made available to the new committee. This means that submissions already provided to the committee about this issue do not need to be re-submitted. Submissions to this inquiry received in the 44th Parliament can be accessed here.

The committee intends to refer to all evidence received during the 44th Parliament.

Whistleblowing:

On 30 November 2016, the Senate referred an inquiry into whistleblower protections in the corporate, public and not-for-profit sectors to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. Information about this inquiry can be found here.

The Economics References Committee will no longer be inquiring into this area of financial advice.

Life insurance industry:

On 14 September 2016, the Senate referred an inquiry into the Life insurance industry to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services. Information about this inquiry can be found here.

The Economics References Committee will no longer be inquiring into this area of financial advice.