Chartered Accountants ANZ (CA ANZ) has made a submission to Treasury on its consultation paper to merge the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB), and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) into a single body by July 2026.

Our key points are as follows:

• The consultation period is dangerously too short – 76% of our members polled are not aware of the consultation, nevertheless the broader market.
• CA ANZ broadly supports flexible standards.
• A balanced board with current, practising, and independent members is essential. The notion of a Board and Technical Standards Committees completely ‘independent from industry’ is akin to a medical standards board with no practising doctors or a legal standards board with no practising lawyers.
• Previous guardrails enshrined in legislation are being removed. For example, there is no separation of due process oversight by the Board, and the standards setting activity performed by the Technical Standards Committees.
• What is proposed is largely inconsistent with comparable jurisdictions and international standard setting arrangements.
• Why change? Current standard bodies are effective and trusted.