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Key events

Labor moves to clean up consulting industry

Tom McIlroy

The federal government has released an options paper to improve the regulation of accounting, auditing and consulting firms in Australia, the latest move in the wake of the KPMG scandal, in which partners leaked client information and mishandled the whistleblower who raised the alarm.

KPMG staff leaked confidential Lendlease and Optus information to colleagues who were applying for lucrative audit contracts at Westpac, Dexus and Telstra. At least three partners were involved.

A new options paper, released by the assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, on Wednesday, flags possible moves to impose quality management and ethical obligations on the big firms, as well as possible operational or structural separation of different business functions.

Partnership limits could be reduced, new governance rules imposed and mandatory periodic testing for audit services, or a regular rotation of contracts introduced.

In recent years, we have seen behaviour from some large accounting, auditing and consulting firms in Australia that is not fair and honest.

This has undermined trust in the firms themselves and raised broader questions about the resilience of the frameworks meant to uphold market integrity.

It is time to return trust and integrity so that the government, taxpayers and other businesses can rely on the services of large accounting, auditing and consulting firms.

Caitlin Cassidy

Independent Nicolette Boele backs childcare reforms

The independent member for Bradfield, Nicolette Boele, has backed calls for a national early childhood education and care commission to manage supply and improve safety regulation in the sector.

Addressing parliament on Tuesday evening, Boele said “supply and need just aren’t lining up, and that points to a market that needs proper stewardship”.

The proposed commission has the backing of a NSW parliamentary inquiry and childcare groups including Thrive by Five, The Parenthood, Early Childhood Australia and Minderoo.

Boele said families couldn’t keep waiting on reviews while bills amassed, and called for an updated timeline on the government’s Deloitte pricing review:

If you’re in that position, hearing that the government is waiting for Deloitte to finish a report before they can increase the childcare subsidy, doesn’t hold up. Families can’t budget around a maybe. I’ve written to the minister, and I want the government to commit to a national commission with a firm timeline – not keep it on the “considering” pile.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.

There’s plenty of news to come but we’re kicking off with Labor revealing the actions it’s considering taking to crack down on the consulting industry after the latest scandal at KPMG.