Bulletin
2002/2 - 16 May 2002
The Chairman of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), Mr Jeffrey Lucy, AM, has welcomed the release by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) of Policy Statement No. 4 "International Convergence and Harmonisation Policy" (copies of which are available on the AASB website).
The Statement is of particular importance as it marks a key point of departure in the activities of the AASB and the future direction of accounting standard setting in Australia, Mr Lucy said.
The Statement details the AASB's policy strategies for fulfilling its function of participating in, and contributing to, the development of a single set of high quality accounting standards for world-wide use. This will mean continued harmonisation and convergence of Australian standards with those issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Federation of Accountants-Public Sector Committee (IFAC-PSC).
The Statement also takes into account the AASB's role as one of eight national accounting standard setters which have an ongoing liaison relationship with the IASB.
Policy Statement No. 4 provides that Australia will ultimately accept the views of the IASB (or IFAC-PSC) and the majority of other IASB liaison standard setters on an issue where this would lead to international convergence on the issue, even though that view is not the preferred position of the AASB. This would occur unless acceptance is considered not to be in the best interests of the Australian public and private sectors. However, such cases are likely to be extremely rare.
New or amended standards issued by the IASB will continue to be exposed in Australia by the AASB, and Australian stakeholders (including the AASB) would have the opportunity to influence the outcome. However, once a standard is made by the IASB, Australia would adopt it even if it did not fully agree with it. This is the essence of convergence to an internationally agreed set of standards.
On 15 May 2002, the IASB issued exposure drafts proposing amendments to 13 international accounting standards as part of its improvements project. To facilitate comment by Australian constituents, the AASB has simultaneously issued an invitation to comment on these exposure drafts. Mr Lucy endorsed calls by the AASB Chairman, Mr Keith Alfredson, for Australian businesses and others to participate fully in this process.
For further information, please contact the secretariat of the Financial Reporting Council, c/- The Treasury, Langton Crescent, Parkes ACT 2600.
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Mr Michael Kooymans |
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Ph: |
(02) 6263 3984 |
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Fax: |
(02) 6263 2770 |
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E–mail: |
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