Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition supports the Corporations Legislation Amendment (Audit Enhancement) Bill 2012, following the Treasury review of the quality of audits in Australia. Following the global financial downturn of 2008-09, a review of audit quality in Australia was conducted over two months from 10 March 2010 by Treasury. A consultation paper was released by the Financial Reporting Council to guide the review. Whilst the review found that the legal framework was robust and stable, it did identify some areas for improvement. The consultation process continued through a series of roundtable discussions between Treasury and the audit industry. The bill proposes changes to the law relating to audit rotation. It introduces transparency reports for large auditors, changes the responsibilities of the Financial Reporting Council and gives ASIC the power to issue audit deficiency reports. The changes in this bill have been widely supported across the industry and the coalition equally supports this bill.