BUS707 Research Plan: Accounting Regulation in Australia Analysis

This assignment presents a research plan that investigates accounting regulation in Australia. The plan examines the role of the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) in setting accounting standards, and explores the impact of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The research includes a background on the regulatory landscape, research questions and objectives, a list of keywords for literature review, and publication details of relevant articles. It also addresses ethical considerations related to data collection and research conduct. The research aims to analyze the quality of financial reporting by Australian entities and the evolution of accounting regulations over time, with a focus on the Corporations Act and the influence of major corporate collapses and global financial crises. The plan outlines the scope and methodology for a comprehensive analysis of accounting practices in Australia.

Name : ________________________________________________
Student ID : ____________________________________________
Proposed Research Title: Accounting regulation in Australia
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Research Background
AASB (Australian Accounting Standards Board), which is an independent agency of government
sets the accounting regulation or accounting standards in Australia. Broadly accounting standards
are comparable with the requirement of IFRS through AASB made some modifications to some
of the standards and issued the additional guidance and interpretations for accomodating specific
economic and legislative environment of Australia or for meeting particular reporting
requirements for the entities like non-profit entities (Iasplus.com, 2019).
In accordance with AASB the Australian acounting standards is applicable to (i) each
organisation and they shall prepare the financial reports in compliance with Part 2M.3 of
Corporation Actn (ii) GPFS of the each reporting entity (iii) financial reports of each general
government sector and (iv) financial statements held as GPFS. As per Para 5, unless it is
specifued otherwise, Australian Accounting Standrads are appliacble to each entity which is
required preparing the financial reports as per Part 2M.3 of Corporation Act (Aasb.gov.au,
2019).
Australia was asked to comply with the international accounting stadards since 1st January 2005.
Owing to this the accounting standard setting capacity of Australia and its position along with
capacity as the centre of accounting excellence has been weakened fundamentally. As per Wayne
Lonergan the inevitable result is that the quality of finnacial reports will be of inferior quality that
will sow the seeds of more serious corporate colapse in future (Finsia.com, 2019).
Some of the issues associated with financial accounting those are controversial have been the
subject of debate over the time by the users, preparers, auditors and the financial statement
regulators. In most of the cases, these issues are resolved, however in some of the cases these
issues are not solved. In majority of the cases the policies related to financial reporting and
accounting policies in Australia are regulated by listing rules of ASX (Australian Securities
exchange), accounting standards and various other pronouncements released by AASB
(Australian accountung Standard Board) and government legislation. In the private as well as
public sector most important legislation that specifies the requirement of financial reporting is the
Corporations Act, 2001 that replaced Corporation Act 1989. As per the requirement of
1 | P a g e

Corporation Act all the entities shall maintain proper financial records, financial report shall be
prepared at the closing of each finnacial year along with the half year report and financial report
shall consist income statement, statement of financial position, statement of cash flows and
statemnet of changes in the equity. (Henderson, et al., 2015).
Lagacies of major domestic collapses in corporate sector like One Tel Ltd and HIH Insurance Pty
Ltd and global financil crises changed the landscape of financial regulatory in Australia
significantly. Legal requirements for the accounting professional have attracted specific attention
regarding practice standards, disclosures and interest conflicts. On the contrary, though successful
prosecution and detection of the breaches may remain in the significant part on the forensic
accounts, australian practitioners do just have minimum qualificatins or tarining regarding this
except the requirements those are mandated by 3 accounting professional bodies in Australia
(Van Akkeren and Tarr, 2014).
Research Questions and Research Objectives
Research qustions –
 What role does AASB play in framing accounting regulation in Australia?
 Is adoption of IFRS/IAS improved the reporting quality of financilal statemnets by the
Australian entities?
Research objective –
Objective of the research is to find out the role played by Australian accounting professional
bodies in faraming the accounting regulation in Australia. In addition the reasearch found out the
changes taken place in accounting regulation as time elapsed.
List of keywords used for Literature Review
AASB (Australian accountung Standard Board) AAS (Australian accountung Standard), IAS
(International accountung Standard), IFRS (International financial reporting standard),
Corporation Act, aacounting standard, ASX (Australian Securities exchange), accounting
profession and GPFS (general purpose financial statements)
2 | P a g e

Publication details of relevant articles for literature review
Aasb.gov.au., 2019. [online] Available at:
https://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB1057_07-15_COMPnov15_01-16.pdf
[Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Finsia.com., 2019. [online] Available at:
https://www.finsia.com/docs/default-source/jassa-new/jassa-
2003/3_2003_emasculation_accounting.pdf?sfvrsn=4b28de93_6 [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Henderson, S., Peirson, G., Herbohn, K., and Howieson, B., 2015. Issues in financial accounting.
Pearson Higher Education AU.
Iasplus.com., 2019. Australia. [online] Available at:
https://www.iasplus.com/en/jurisdictions/oceania/australia [Accessed 10 Aug. 2019].
Van Akkeren, J., and Tarr, J. A., 2014. Regulation, compliance and the Australian forensic
accounting profession. Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, 6(3), 1-26.
Ethical Consideration
All the data has been collected from secondary source including the published journal or articles.
Researcher has used proper code of conduct for carrying out the procedure of data collection. All
the data has been accumulated from valid and authentic source. Research has solely been carried
out for the academic purpose and not for any type of promotional work that can be held
responsible for violating the terms of the research ethics.
3 | P a g e