I saw this issue today and figured out that for me it was related to how I launched Internet Explorer.
I was connected via remote desktop and if I started Internet Explorer via the start menu, navigated to the central administration site and authenticated as a user who's a member of the farm administrator group I would be presented with an empty 'Configuration Wizards' section. Also note that the 'New' button in the ribbon under 'Manage Web Applications' was disabled.
If I closed Internet Explorer and navigated to 'Start > All Programs > SharePoint 2010 Products' and ran the shortcut there to 'SharePoint 2010 Central Administration' after answering yes to a UAC prompt and authenticating as the same user used previously the 'Farm Configuration' wizard was available. Note also that the 'New' button under 'Manage Web Applications' was also available.