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CPA Australia calls for action on audit capacity as demand for assurance grows
Content Summary
Australia’s largest accounting body CPA Australia is using Auditor Proud Day today to call for urgent action to strengthen Australia's audit workforce, warning that long-term audit capacity can no longer be taken for granted as demand for assurance services continues to grow.
In a submission on the future of Australia's audit profession, CPA Australia has highlighted concerns that a materially smaller pool of Registered Company Auditors (RCAs) is being asked to support a statutory audit market that remains large, increasingly complex and critical to investor confidence and economic performance.
CPA Australia Audit and Assurance Lead Tiffany Tan FCPA said Auditor Proud Day was an important opportunity to recognise the contribution auditors make to Australia's economy while confronting the challenges facing the profession.
"Auditors play a vital role in maintaining trust in financial reporting, supporting investment and helping Australia's markets operate with confidence," Ms Tan said.
"Today is about recognising that contribution, but it's also a reminder that Australia's audit workforce pipeline needs attention. We need to attract more people into audit, create clearer pathways for progression and ensure experienced professionals remain in the profession."
Ms Tan said growing assurance requirements, including climate-related reporting obligations, would place additional demands on a workforce already facing capacity pressures.
"A sustainable audit profession doesn't happen by accident. It requires a coordinated approach that supports people from entry into the profession through to becoming experienced audit leaders and Registered Company Auditors."
CPA Australia has urged Treasury to ensure audit capacity, workforce pipeline and retention considerations are central to any future audit reform agenda. The organisation has proposed a workforce strategy focused on attracting, developing, progressing and retaining auditors, including stronger pathways to RCA registration, targeted skilled migration and better data on effective audit capacity.
Ms Tan said regulatory reform should strengthen confidence in audit without undermining the profession's capacity to serve businesses and investors.
"Australia's audit market relies on highly skilled professionals working within firms that provide the systems, governance, quality management and specialist expertise needed to deliver high-quality audits.
"That's why CPA Australia believes policymakers should prioritise targeted firm-level regulation and stronger ASIC oversight before considering more disruptive structural reforms."
CPA Australia's recent submission to Treasury's review of accounting, auditing and consulting firms called for direct regulation of audit firms, enhanced ASIC surveillance and enforcement powers, greater transparency and proportionate accountability measures.
"The key policy challenge is ensuring accountability sits where responsibility and influence sit. Firm-level regulation would help close an important regulatory gap, while stronger ASIC oversight would improve confidence in the framework without reducing capability, competition or participation in the audit market."
Ms Tan said Auditor Proud Day should also be an opportunity to celebrate audit as a meaningful and rewarding career.
"Audit provides a unique opportunity to build deep technical expertise, develop professional judgement and contribute directly to public trust and confidence in Australia's economy.
"If we want a strong and sustainable audit profession ten years from now, we need to invest in the people who will be delivering those audits and assurance services in the future."
In a submission on the future of Australia's audit profession, CPA Australia has highlighted concerns that a materially smaller pool of Registered Company Auditors (RCAs) is being asked to support a statutory audit market that remains large, increasingly complex and critical to investor confidence and economic performance.
CPA Australia Audit and Assurance Lead Tiffany Tan FCPA said Auditor Proud Day was an important opportunity to recognise the contribution auditors make to Australia's economy while confronting the challenges facing the profession.
"Auditors play a vital role in maintaining trust in financial reporting, supporting investment and helping Australia's markets operate with confidence," Ms Tan said.
"Today is about recognising that contribution, but it's also a reminder that Australia's audit workforce pipeline needs attention. We need to attract more people into audit, create clearer pathways for progression and ensure experienced professionals remain in the profession."
Ms Tan said growing assurance requirements, including climate-related reporting obligations, would place additional demands on a workforce already facing capacity pressures.
"A sustainable audit profession doesn't happen by accident. It requires a coordinated approach that supports people from entry into the profession through to becoming experienced audit leaders and Registered Company Auditors."
CPA Australia has urged Treasury to ensure audit capacity, workforce pipeline and retention considerations are central to any future audit reform agenda. The organisation has proposed a workforce strategy focused on attracting, developing, progressing and retaining auditors, including stronger pathways to RCA registration, targeted skilled migration and better data on effective audit capacity.
Ms Tan said regulatory reform should strengthen confidence in audit without undermining the profession's capacity to serve businesses and investors.
"Australia's audit market relies on highly skilled professionals working within firms that provide the systems, governance, quality management and specialist expertise needed to deliver high-quality audits.
"That's why CPA Australia believes policymakers should prioritise targeted firm-level regulation and stronger ASIC oversight before considering more disruptive structural reforms."
CPA Australia's recent submission to Treasury's review of accounting, auditing and consulting firms called for direct regulation of audit firms, enhanced ASIC surveillance and enforcement powers, greater transparency and proportionate accountability measures.
"The key policy challenge is ensuring accountability sits where responsibility and influence sit. Firm-level regulation would help close an important regulatory gap, while stronger ASIC oversight would improve confidence in the framework without reducing capability, competition or participation in the audit market."
Ms Tan said Auditor Proud Day should also be an opportunity to celebrate audit as a meaningful and rewarding career.
"Audit provides a unique opportunity to build deep technical expertise, develop professional judgement and contribute directly to public trust and confidence in Australia's economy.
"If we want a strong and sustainable audit profession ten years from now, we need to invest in the people who will be delivering those audits and assurance services in the future."
Media contact
Adrienne Biscontin
External Affairs Adviser
[email protected]
0429 009 691