Australian Government
Australian Accounting Standards Board
On Thursday, 1 June 2023, the AASB and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand held a face-to-face session in Sydney on Digital Financial Reporting.
Dr Andreas Barckow, IASB Chair and Professor Ann Tarca, IASB Member, were in attendance, and they were joined by a panel of experts who shared their insights about digital financial reporting.
Professor Tarca provided an overview of the IASB's current work on digital financial reporting. The expert panel then discussed the opportunities that digitalisation offers to financial reporting and the significant advantages for preparers, auditors, regulators, users and analysts.
Attendees also had an opportunity to ask questions of the panelists at the end of the session.
Keynote Speaker
Professor Tarca served as a member of the AASB from 2014 to 2017 and was research director for the AASB from February 2017. She was an academic fellow of the IFRS Foundation from 2011 to 2012. She has authored a textbook on accounting and written a wide range of research papers related to IFRS Standards, for which she has received many awards. Professor Tarca is an active member of the international accounting academic community, having served on several boards and committees.
Professor Tarca is a chartered accountant with a PhD in accounting from the University of Western Australia.
Panellists
Amir Ghandar is Chartered Accountants ANZ's Reporting and Assurance Leader. After starting his career in a country accounting firm in Northern New South Wales, Amir trained at top-tier professional services firms, including EY in Australia and London, gaining extensive experience in reporting, assurance and regulation. In his role, Amir engages with Chartered Accountants and stakeholders to help shape the profession's vision on key policy decisions, represent the profession in major forums and reimagine how reporting and auditing can deliver on society's evolving needs.
Previously, as Deputy Director, Public Policy & Regulation at the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Amir drove the public policy and advocacy strategy for the global profession on issues including reporting, assurance, and governance. He grew the profession's influence and networks at the top level of international policy making, collaborating with the G20 and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to carve out the profession's role in improving transparency, tackling corruption and building public trust.
Doug is ASIC’s Chief Accountant and is primarily responsible for ASIC’s strategy and policy on financial reporting, audit and periodic sustainability reporting. This includes digital financial reporting. Doug represents ASIC externally on financial reporting, auditing policy and technical issues. He is a member of the IOSCO Committee 1 on Accounting, Audit and Disclosure, the IOSCO Sustainability Corporate Reporting Workstream and the International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators.
Doug has more than 40 years of experience in financial reporting and audit. He worked at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, where he audited companies in the financial services sector and other industries. He joined ASIC as Deputy Chief Accountant in 1998 and was ASIC’s Senior Executive Leader, Financial Reporting and Audit, from 2008 to 2020.
Keith was appointed Chair of the AASB in May 2020. During the previous 25 years, he has worked in a variety of roles in accounting, law and taxation including in academia, government and public practice. He has also held (and continues to hold) a number of volunteer roles in the not-for-profit sector, including with the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.
A Fellow of CPA Australia and a member of CAANZ, he is a former member of CPA Australia’s Taxation Centre of Excellence.
As part of his role on the AASB, Dr Kendall also serves as a member of the (Australian) Financial Reporting Council and the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board.
Rebekah has spent 20 years working in the property industry with roles at EY, Dexus, New City (based in Japan) and Rawson Homes (as CFO) before her current role at GPT. In addition to looking after daily finance functions, she has also worked on numerous system implementations, including two ERP implementations. She believes that well operating systems are key to effective finance teams, reducing the risk of error and ensuring that finance team members can focus on driving value in the organisations in which they operate.
Rebekah is also Chair of the Property Council of Australia Accounting Committee, a member of the AASB Disclosure Initiative Project Advisory Panel and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand .