The Palmer United Party has left open the possibility of backing out of a deal it has struck with the Government over consumer protections in the finance sector.

The warning comes as Labor accuses the Government of losing control and of acting like Clive Palmer's "puppets".

Late yesterday the PUP leader Clive Palmer revealed his party had negotiated with the Coalition over its new rules governing financial advice - granting the Government its crucial votes in the Senate in return for some changes.

Labor had launched an effort to disallow the rules and retain laws it brought in when in Government.

The Labor laws sought to protect consumers from financial planning fraud, like that seen at some Commonwealth Bank subsidiaries which cost thousands of investors a large part of their life savings.

This morning WA PUP Senator Dio Wang said the debate about the Future of Financial Advice (FoFA) laws was "still open".

He said PUP could "potentially" withdraw its support, adding:"[It] depends on the negotiation and whether we feel that there is actually enough protection for consumers".

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 5 minutes 36 seconds 5 m Seniors warned to be wary of financial advice Download 10.3 MB

Mr Palmer warned the Government to stick to its commitments made in negotiations.

"If for example they didn't do what they've said they were going to do ... if they were dishonest and they didn't do that of course we wouldn't support it," Mr Palmer said.

The Coalition has long argued Labor's laws place too many restrictions on advisers, this week changing the laws through government regulation.

Either house of Parliament has the right to disallow regulations, and Labor had been pushing to scrap the changes in the Senate.

But instead PUP entered into talks that have resulted in what the minor party says are stronger legal requirements that financial advisers act in the best interests of their clients.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says negotiations with PUP resulted in a change that obligation be "specifically mentioned in the statement provided to the client and signed by both the adviser and the client".

The deal also stipulated that Mr Cormann read out into the parliamentary record official correspondence the minister had sent to Mr Palmer outlining the Government's commitments to the minor party.

Mr Cormann read out the letter in yesterday's debate, saying he was doing so "in order to provide full transparency".

'Murky, last-minute deal', says seniors organisation

National Seniors Australia has called it a grubby deal, accusing both the Government and PUP of treating older Australians with contempt.

"This murky last-minute deal was done behind closed doors and without consumer consultation," chief executive Michael O'Neill said in a statement.

"It makes a mockery of the parliamentary process and it's a disgrace."

Labor says the Senate wrangling shows the Government has lost control of its agenda.

Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke says chaos reigns in Parliament.

"It'd be an extraordinary redefinition of the word control if we were to imply that anyone in the Government was in control of this nation's agenda at the moment," Mr Burke said.

"The Government at the moment has let this entire place descend into chaos. There's no other way of looking at it."

He says the Government is effectively a "puppet" of Mr Palmer.

"The spectacle last night of Clive Palmer leaving the House of Representatives, walking into the Senate, watching Mathias Cormann read the script he'd been told to read then leaving the chamber once the job had been done and once the Government had played their role as puppets," he said.

Earlier Mr Cormann praised the negotiations process with PUP.

"I found Mr Palmer very good to deal with, very straight," Mr Cormann said.

"He listened to the arguments on why we were doing what we were doing.

"He put forward some suggestions on how our improvements could be made even better. We considered those proposals and we thought they were sensible suggestions."

The Government will add further changes to the regulations within 90 days and Labor says it will try to amend the legislation when it is introduced.

Loading...