Ethics requirements for CPD

• Subject to By-Laws 4.1 (b), 4.5 and 4.6, Every Member (including suspended Members), must in each triennium undertake at least 120 hours of Continuing Professional Development, of which at least 20 hours must be undertaken in each year of the triennium.
• Within the 120 hours of Continuing Professional Development in each triennium, Members must undertake at least 10 hours of Ethics and Professional Responsibility, of which at least 2 hours must be undertaken in each year of the triennium.
• Life Members, Honorary Members and Members on the Retired Membership list are exempt from By-Laws 4.1 (a) and 4.1 (b) unless, they are subject to any requirements referred to in By-Law 3.11(d).

No, this will not be an additional obligation. 10 CPD hours for Ethics will be included in the total requirement of 120 CPD hours for the triennium.

Yes, only if the event has been organised via the CPA Australia event registration platform.

CPD from other sources needs to be verifiable evidence to support completion. Verifiable evidence is objective evidence which can be proven and retained in either written or electronic form.

For a CPD activity to be verifiable there must be evidence of its completion that is:

• Objective: Fact based rather than based on personal perspectives
• Corroborated: Can be confirmed to be accurate
• Retained: Documented and stored in an observable format

Some examples of verifiable evidence

• Registration in an event and confirmation of attendance
• Exam results/Certificate of achievement
• Attestation form signed off by event coordinator/supervisor
• Confirmation by an employer of participation in an in-house program
• Confirmation by other committee members (or Secretariat) of participation on a Technical Committee
• Invoice for event/learning product

Some examples of Professional Ethics topics but not limited to are as below:

• CPA Australia regulatory updates covering the Act, Bylaws, Regulations and Code of Professional Conduct 
• Regulatory updates that are relevant and appropriate to the member’s role or industry 
• Corporate codes of conduct 
• Independence/conflict of interest 
• Ethical business culture 
• Corporate social responsibility 
• Whistleblowing 
• Anti-money-laundering 
• Bribery and corruption, etc. 

If you are unable to provide sufficient evidence of continuing professional development or have failed to contact us during the review period, you will be issued with a Support Plan with actions to be completed by a specified date. If the support plan obligation is not met, then you may be referred to the Professional Conduct unit who will determine the appropriate action.

Yes. As it’s a 2 CPD hour minimum requirement each year, a member will not receive an exemption for CPD obligations for Ethics.

No, they are not required to complete additional hours. We will accept hours that are provided by their organisation.