The Federal Government has spent a few million dollars promoting Sydney as a global financial centre, but that’s not stopping the Victorian Government putting together an action plan to sell the state as the “financial services capital of Australia”.

Tim Holding, the Victorian Minister for Manufacturing and Export and Minister for the Financial Services Industry, told Sunrise Exchange News yesterday that “historical relationship glitches between industry and government” have made his goal a hard one to pursue.

He’s right about relationship glitches. In 2002 the Government managed to keep the fire services levy from becoming a regional election issue by promising an inquiry that turned out to be a secretive internal review which threw out all suggestions of change. The state also leads the country (and the world) in the levels of taxes it imposes on insurance-buyers.    

Mr Holding may not have noticed that most of the financial services sector has disappeared north to Sydney over the past 20 years.

The Government’s benchmarking research into the sector over the past couple of years has identified a number of industries, including funds management and insurance, to “look into”. 

The action plan is due for release in late May. Mr Holding says it will be used to “entice more people into the industry” and “market the industry as the centre of excellence”.

“We certainly see ourselves as the leader in financial services education and training, and we’re just in the final stages of developing this plan so we can best display what we have to offer,” he said.