Do firms really face structural separation?
Headlines have screamed firms are up for being split, but how certain is anybody that this will be the outcome?
Options papers are curious things because the worst possible options will be chosen as the headline.
In the case of the latest deep dive into accounting and audit regulation the media has picked up on the notion of firms being told to split up because some of them - or people within them - have behaved inappropriately.
Let’s not pump up the possibility of separation of firms in amy way shape or form just yet because this is an options paper and not an edict.
A paper with options does not eliminate the possibility of the government leaving certain things as they are because it becomes politically or practically impossible to do.
There is another matter people need to reflect on when looking at the paper in detail - as Canberra Sentinel will do in coming days - that the paper is in large part boring.
It is boring because anybody that has watched accounting debates over the years knows that many of the issues are issues that have been debate for decades. None of this is new.
Go back far enough and you will see luminaries of accounting literature such as Abraham J Briloff talk about consulting and audit, and conflicts between services.
None of this is new. None of this is novel, but there are clear and simple steps that can be taken by the federal parliament to make the accounting sector more accountable.
More on this in coming days …