A Treasury official has clarified that the department was responsible for mistakes in a draft bill that could have led to a ban on commissions for intermediaries providing general advice.

“This is an error of officials’ making … this is not an error of the government’s making,” Andre Moore, Treasury’s assistant secretary for the advice and investment branch, told a Senate hearing this afternoon.

“When the error was drawn to our attention, it was clearly not the policy intent, so that wasn’t so much a question about whether it was government policy or not.

“It was clearly against government policy.”

Mr Moore was responding to questions from Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, deputy chair of the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, which is reviewing the bill and is expected to report by next Thursday.

As reported, the mistake was discovered after the bill was introduced to parliament in March to add a provision to the Corporations Act requiring commission disclosure and consent in relation to personal advice to retail clients.

The bill aims to implement the Albanese government’s first tranche of reforms as part of its response to the Quality of Advice Review led by financial services lawyer Michelle Levy.

Industry stakeholders quickly flagged the error to Treasury, which has rectified the mistake and on Tuesday opened consultation on the amendments it has made.

In this afternoon’s hearing, Senator Bragg repeatedly pressed Treasury over the commission wording error, how it slipped through and if it was checked by the Financial Services Minister’s office.

Dr Moore said: “Yes … then our final checks in the bill, it’s Treasury … and also ASIC … we collectively missed that error and it was only when it was drawn to our attention by stakeholders did we see it and then immediately moved to address it.”