MEDIA RELEASE (AU)

CA ANZ's written statement to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services 19 June 2026, on behalf of CA ANZ Chief Executive Ainslie van Onselen, Board Chair Sarah Petersen and Group Executive General Counsel and Corporate Assurance, Vanessa Chapman.

The allegations before this Committee are serious. They strike at the heart of trust in audit and must be scrutinised by every responsible regulator and CA ANZ is actively investigating.

The Code of Ethics in APES110 is unambiguous: members must respect the right of clients to have all information kept secure, private and confidential.

Lendlease's letter, dated 30 April 2026, states that a KPMG Registered Company Auditor knowingly had unauthorised access to documents. We quote: "KPMG acknowledged that the audit partner should have advised Lendlease that it had access to the audit tender folder in Diligent and should not have viewed any of the documents in that folder."

The principle is basic: if you have access to something you are not meant to, disclose it immediately. You do not use it to your advantage.

CA ANZ action

At the time of publishing this statement, CA ANZ’s independent Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) is progressing 12 active investigations including three initiated from self-disclosures. This is in addition to existing academic integrity investigations.

CA ANZ CEO Ainslie van Onselen has directed targeted Quality Practice Reviews of KPMG Australia and other major firms on how they handle confidential information and promote ethical culture. All KPMG partners have been selected for ethics CPD compliance monitoring.

CA ANZ cannot act on this matter alone.

ASIC's jurisdiction to regulate audit firms needs clarity and adequate resourcing. PCAOB-style regulation, with firm inspections and fines in the millions, requires a regulator with the power and funding to match.

Whistleblower correspondence

As set out in material provided to the Committee under a Production Order, in 2023 and 2025 CA ANZ received emails from two anonymous individuals identifying as KPMG whistleblowers.

In our responses we provided information about our complaints process, which requires a specific complaint against a specific member. No correspondence from the alleged whistleblowers provided that.

These emails did not include details of the client confidentiality and independence issues now before this Committee. They referenced academic integrity issues already under investigation in 2023, and separate AI-related academic integrity concerns from December 2025, that were also already under investigation.

CA ANZ became aware of the allegations regarding the handling of confidential information and independence after they were made public in Parliament on 24 March 2026.

CA ANZ is not a third-party whistleblower reporting agency. As a private membership body, our disciplinary processes operate under our By-Laws, not the Corporations Act whistleblower protections administered by ASIC.

Whistleblower reform

Whistleblower protections in Australia are fragmented and difficult to navigate.

CA ANZ raised these concerns with this Committee in October 2023, and in our Going Further roadmap, which called for the Corporations Act to be amended so that any member of an audit team can safely speak up. We publicly supported this Committee's own recommendations 36 and 37 from its 2024 report. They have not been implemented. We welcome the Assistant Treasurer's announced review and will contribute constructively.

Conclusion

CA ANZ will use every tool at our disposal to hold members accountable. But the regulatory framework around audit must keep pace. CA ANZ is doing its part; the rest of the system must do the same.