Australia’s Response to Consulting Ethics Inquiry Vexes Senators

The Australian government’s response to recommendations from a wide-ranging parliamentary inquiry into ethics in the auditing, assurance, and consulting sector is inadequate, lawmakers said.

The government this week told Parliament it noted the 40 recommendations of the Joint Corporations and Finance Committee inquiry and listed regulatory changes.

But the response didn’t appease some senators involved in the inquiry prompted by PwC Australia leaking confidential government tax plans to corporate clients in 2023.

The response is “woefully inadequate” after two inquiries into the tax leak “discovered a tidal wave of malpractice, poor governance and structural failures,” Greens Sen. Barbara Pocock said ...