The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, the Hon Chris Pearce MP, today released a consultation paper on proposals in relation to the powers of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to conduct audit inspections.
'The proposals are primarily directed at avoiding unnecessary duplication between Australian and overseas audit regulation systems, particularly that of the United States,' Mr Pearce said.
'The Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 substantially changed the companies and auditors regime in the United States [US] and creates extensive new obligations for companies that access US capital markets as well as Australian auditors involved in the audit of Australian companies subject to the Act.'
Discussions between ASIC and the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) have identified potential for significant rationalisation of the two regimes applying to the audit inspection process.
Mr Pearce said that the objective of the proposed joint audit regulation programme is to ensure that Australian auditors that are registered with the PCAOB and their Australian audit clients are not required to undergo duplicate audit inspection processes by Australian and US regulators.
The proposals would give ASIC complementary updated powers for use solely in the domestic audit inspection context.
'The proposed ASIC information-gathering powers would be better tailored to the audit inspection function and would avoid unnecessary work for auditors and ASIC in relation to the audit inspection process', Mr Pearce said.
The consultation paper is available electronically from the Treasury website.
MELBOURNE
30 September 2005
Contact: Andrew Conway (03) 9887 3890