Future of corporate reporting

Developed by RMIT in collaboration with CPA Australia, this research provides an analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) disclosure practices and trends – between 2018 to 2020 – by the top 150 Australian public-listed companies (ASX150). The findings indicate the extent of awareness, commitment and governance support for the SDGs has substantially improved, indicating Australian companies have growing commitment, greater transparency and accountability towards sustainable development.

Prepared by Associate Professor Wendy Stubbs, Monash University and Associate Professor Colin Higgins, Deakin University, 2020 - This study canvasses reporting managers’ decision-making processes in selecting reporting frameworks, how they are using these frameworks and the challenges associated with navigating this complex landscape.

Associate Professor Wendy Stubbs and Associate Professor Colin Higgins, 2020 - Recent years have seen a turning point in the development of corporate reporting towards more meaningful and accessible communication of an entity’s position, performance and prospects. Understanding the role of integrated reporting (IR) will be a key driver in shaping our understanding of what constitutes a ‘better corporate report’, how it might be achieved, and what its limitations are within the totality of corporate disclosure. This summary of research findings from academics at Monash and Deakin universities spanning 2012 to 2019 provides a practical and applied understanding of the complex context of IR’s evolution, potentially informing both its future and shape.

Gillian Vesty, Albie Brooks and Judy Oliver, 2015 - At the heart of accounting is information: not merely for its own sake, but as the essential ingredient to effective decision making. This book of five case studies is the result of extensive online surveying of Australian companies during 2012 in collaboration with the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project. The case studies examined where, and if so how, sustainability issues were being incorporated into internal capital allocation decisions.

Matthew Egan, Geoff Frost and Zornitza Andreeva, 2015 - An exploration of disclosures made by large Australian corporations about their impact on one of society’s critically sensitive and scarce resources: water. Attention is directed to public disclosures by large industrial consumers of water.

Dr Colin Higgins and Dr Wendy Stubbs, 2014 - There is widespread recognition amongst financial stakeholders of Australian organisations that current reporting requires some changes. There is less agreement that integrated reporting is necessarily the best way forward, and little agreement about whether regulatory standards or non-regulatory guidelines are most effective at driving change.

CPA Australia and Global Reporting Initiative, 2013 - This report addresses the critical issue of organisational capacity to report sustainability information. It investigates what gets in the way of non-financial reporting uptake and explores the attributes of companies that have already made significant inroads in producing wide-ranging disclosures beyond those mandated by regulation.

Associate Professor Geoff Frost, Professor Stewart Jones and Associate Professor Philip Lee, 2012 - The case studies contained in this report provide ‘coal-face’ insights into the challenges confronted by businesses in shifting from traditional ‘business-as-usual’ to innovative and sustainable business operations.

This study, undertaken by leading academics at Australian and New Zealand universities, is informed by in-depth interviews with four Australian companies producing integrated reports along with twenty stakeholders representing financial, environmental and civic perspectives.

Listed entities will be required to comply with the updated ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations from the first full financial year commencing on or after 1 January 2020. Members of CPA Australia need to be aware of the steps that the board and management must take to be compliant and also recognise that many unlisted entities will use the revised Principles and Recommendations as a guide to best practice.

Enthusiasm in Australia for integrated reporting (IR) has been shrouded in concern about corporate and director liability. This paper seeks to demystify these circumstances and provide a foundation for a more certain way forward.

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