I am pleased to release the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)’s Auditor Disciplinary Processes: Review and the Morrison Government’s response to this review.
Auditors play a vital role in providing independent assurance and supporting the integrity of our financial markets. High quality financial reports ensure that Australian investors can be confident and informed when making investment decisions.
The Government is committed to ensuring that auditors are held to a high standard, and that auditors who fail to discharge their statutory or professional duties are appropriately sanctioned.
The Government asked the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to undertake a review of auditor disciplinary functions in November 2018. This was in response to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services’ Report on the 2016-17 Annual Reports of Bodies Established under the ASIC Act. The report recommended that the Government review the adequacy of auditor disciplinary functions.
I thank the Parliamentary Joint Committee of Corporations and Financial Services for its analysis of this important issue, and the FRC for thoroughly and expeditiously conducting its review, and for identifying practical recommendations for improving disciplinary processes that apply to auditors.