Date posted: 12/02/2024 5 min read

Securing trust in a turbulent world

Where would the accounting profession be without trust? CA ANZ’s new roadmap seeks to clarify the way forward on ethics, conduct and regulation.

Quick take

  • The evidence points to chartered accountants continuing to enjoy a high level of trust across society.
  • A new part of CA ANZ’s ongoing response is putting forward 'Going Further: A roadmap to enhanced trust and accountability'.
  • As CA ANZ put forward in its submission and oral evidence to a parliamentary inquiry in 2023, the roadmap also hones in on steps to improve transparency and trust in large professional services firms.

The past year has seen heightened scrutiny into the profession in Canberra and across Australia’s major mastheads. In a series of inquiries mainly focused on large professional firms and consulting, many questions have also been asked about the profession’s ethics and commitment to values, and the role of government.

Although sparked by several events – most prominently the tax leaks scandal – this is part of a wider trend where we’ve seen the public conversation becoming more sceptical of institutions right across the economy.

The Edelman Trust Barometer points to “lack of faith in societal institutions triggered by economic anxiety, disinformation, mass-class divide, and a failure of leadership”. Global observers such as the United Nations and International Monetary Fund have been speaking of a ‘trust deficit’ or ‘crisis of trust’ in public institutions for several years now.

As a profession, we are far from immune from this trend and it should serve as a wake-up call toward keeping our house in order, but also thinking about whether some of the old paradigms on which our profession has operated might have shifted.

Going further

What does this mean for a profession whose value is grounded in trust?

The evidence points to chartered accountants continuing to enjoy a high level of trust across society. For example, strong levels of trust in listed company auditors have been demonstrated over five years in CA ANZ’s retail investor confidence surveys and Chartered Accountants Worldwide’s trust surveys. Other research over recent years has consistently shown a similar message.

But these are far from laurels to rest on – the relentless scrutiny and scepticism we’ve seen in the media and other forums demands a response befitting the profession’s long, trusted and credible role in society.

In addition to engaging with the ongoing inquiries over the past year, including hearings and written submissions, a new part of CA ANZ’s ongoing response is putting forward Going Further: A roadmap to enhanced trust and accountability.

Awareness and regulation

Going Further draws on our engagement with members, the board, council and other stakeholders over the past year. It maps out important steps for the profession, CA ANZ, government and other key actors, to fortify trust and accountability.

This includes recommendations focused on ethics and conduct, such as improving awareness of ethical obligations, putting in place the significant reforms identified through the independent professional conduct review recently voted on by members, and improving the transparency of conduct and oversight.

As CA ANZ put forward in its submission and oral evidence to a parliamentary inquiry in 2023, the roadmap also hones in on steps to improve transparency and trust in large professional services firms.

Finally, the roadmap sets out several key steps to improve regulatory settings, including a formal government response to the 2020 inquiry into audit regulation, clarifying the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC) jurisdiction, improving whistleblower protections and facilitating better intelligence sharing among regulators.

This roadmap is not the be-all and end-all, and we can be assured that securing the high levels of trust the profession continues to command will be a never-ending mission. However, this is a tangible set of actions based on wide engagement that I would commend to you.

As always, I welcome and appreciate your input and feedback, as we continue this important work.

Read the full Going Further roadmap

Visit caanz.com/going-further to read Going Further and share your own views on how CA ANZ can act on issues of trust and ethics in the profession.