New research provides a comprehensive analysis of auditor reporting practices across Australia and New Zealand, with a particular focus on going concern. Produced collaboratively by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland, the report examines audit opinions issued for listed entities with 2025 financial reporting periods, offering valuable insights for auditors, preparers, regulators and users of financial statements.

A key headline finding is the continued dominance of unqualified audit opinions. In 2025, 99% of auditors’ reports across Australia and New Zealand were unqualified, reinforcing a long‑term downward trend in modified opinions over the past decade. Qualified opinions have become increasingly rare, with only seven Australian companies receiving a qualified opinion in 2025, five of which were mining entities. All qualified opinions arose from auditors’ inability to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence, most commonly in relation to valuation matters. Notably, there were no adverse opinions or disclaimers issued during the year.

While audit opinions remain overwhelmingly unmodified, the prevalence of material uncertainty related to going concern continues to attract attention. Of all unqualified audit opinions in Australia and New Zealand in 2025, 37% included a material uncertainty related to going concern paragraph. This highlights that, although financial statements may be prepared on a going concern basis with adequate disclosure, a significant proportion of entities face conditions that cast doubt on their ability to continue operating.

Australia, in particular, has experienced elevated levels of going concern uncertainty since the COVID‑19 period. Excluding mining companies, 28% of Australian listed entities had a material uncertainty related to going concern in 2025, compared with 15% in New Zealand and approximately 8% in comparable high‑income countries internationally. The position is even more pronounced in the Australian mining sector, where 48% of companies were reported as having a material uncertainty related to going concern. This reflects the capital‑intensive and inherently uncertain nature of exploration‑focused business models, where access to funding and successful resource discovery are critical.

The report also highlights a clear relationship between entity size and going concern risk. Smaller entities are significantly more likely to have a material uncertainty related to going concern than larger entities, indicating that scale, diversification and access to capital remain important buffers against financial stress. Industry analysis further shows that going concern issues are most prevalent in Information Technology, Health Care and the Energy and Materials sectors in Australia, while Consumer Staples, Health Care and Information Technology feature most prominently in New Zealand.

Beyond going concern, the report examines key audit matters (KAMs) disclosed by Australian auditors. Revenue recognition and asset impairment continue to dominate KAM reporting, accounting for approximately 28% and 26% of KAMs respectively in 2025. These areas reflect heightened auditor focus in an environment characterised by economic uncertainty, interest rate volatility and increasingly complex accounting judgements. For mining companies, exploration and evaluation assets remain by far the most significant KAM, representing over half of all reported matters.

Interestingly, while going concern is a major theme in auditor reporting overall, it represents a relatively small proportion of KAMs, accounting for around 3% of KAMs for both mining and non‑mining companies. This reflects the distinction between matters that warrant a dedicated going concern paragraph and those that require significant audit attention but do not give rise to material uncertainty.