Continued the debate
Conaghan opposed the bill, arguing it reformed a system that was not broken and lacked evidence of governance failure or international credibility issues. The member stated that the coalition could not support the legislation due to concerns regarding independence, governance, and the concentration of power in a single entity. Conaghan emphasised that the current separation of oversight and technical standard-setting provided necessary checks and balances. The speaker argued that the government had failed to address more urgent financial services issues, including rising insurance premiums and stalled advice reforms. Conaghan called for the bill to be examined by the Senate Economics Legislation Committee to assess governance safeguards and ministerial influence.