Statement from the Board 18 October 2019

1. Regulatory Burden Report

CPA Australia this month released The Regulatory Burden Report that measures the impact of regulatory complexity on professional accountants providing advisory services in Australia.

The comprehensive report is based on a survey completed by more than 600 CPA Australia members working in public practice, in depth focus groups with 60 members, and the views of more than 1000 consumers and SMEs who responded to a separate survey about their experiences when seeking advice and services from accountants.

CPA Australia’s Regulatory Burden Report confirmed that regulatory burden is having significant impact on professional accountants providing advisory services to their clients. Importantly it also brought to life how, as well as its likely impact in the future. It is no secret that nearly two decades of increasing regulation and compliance requirements are negatively impacting the provision of advisory services to clients, including small business clients.

Given the importance and the need for change, we will now look to collaborate more broadly with other professional bodies to advocate with the government and policy makers on the need to build efficient regulatory frameworks that enable the provision of affordable, quality advice to consumers and small business from their choice of trusted adviser.

2. Congress 2019

CPA Australia’s flagship event Congress has so far been delivered across nine locations in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, exploring the themes of accounting for the robots and the future of digital money.

Over the next few weeks Congress will move to Sydney, Hobart, Adelaide and London. Members who could not attend in person can view the most popular sessions via Congress on Demand – a curated suite of pre-recorded or live videos of sessions from Congress 2019 – which will be available to purchase in November.

3. Member Engagement Survey

The views of members are an important benchmark in the way CPA Australia measures performance. A number of the key performance indicators  (KPIs) that we published at the beginning of the year are determined by the results of the annual member engagement survey. The survey is conducted by our independent research partner, Forethought, and will be sent to members from next week. Please take the time to complete the survey and provide your feedback. All responses are anonymous, and the results will help CPA Australia improve the service and value we deliver to members.

4. CPA Australia Strategy – One Year On

To mark 12 months since the release of CPA Australia’s strategy 2018-2021, we released a short video via CPA Update summarising the various strategic initiatives that have been achieved in the past year.

To coincide with the release of the video, CEO Andrew Hunter hosted two webinars in which he discussed the implementation of the strategy and answered members’ questions about the progress so far and the priorities for the organisation over the next 12 months. We thank the members who took part in the webinars.

5. Divisional Council Elections

As reported in last month’s Board Statement, elections for Divisional Councillor positions are being held in 11 of CPA Australia’s 13 Divisions: Australian Capital Territory, Europe, Malaysia, New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Singapore, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

Voting closes next week on Monday 21 October and the Board encourages all members to participate.

Peter Wilson AM FCPA

President and Chair
On behalf of CPA Australia’s Board of Directors