Our latest insights

In the latest episode of Beyond the Numbers with Grant Thornton, our Brisbane Office Chair and Tax Partner Sian Sinclair and Risk Consulting Partner Jarrod Lean discuss opportunities, challenges, procurement risks and strategies.

Local councils play a pivotal role in the governance and development of communities and are responsible for a myriad of services and decisions that directly impact the daily lives of residents.

Accounts payable and payroll fraud conducted by employees is an issue that can have a negative impact on businesses. Detecting and investigating these types of fraud requires a systematic approach to identify irregularities, gather evidence, and take appropriate action against the perpetrators.

The current cost of living crisis compounded with salaries not keeping up with inflation has created a climate in which the fraud triangle can emerge. Internal Audit programs are a valuable tool that can be used to assess and report this.

CPS 230 requires regulated entities to consider service disruption from a different perspective. Working backwards through a scenario, entities must identify the harm that a disruption may cause to its customers or the broader financial system, then take active measures to prevent it (operational risk) and recover from it (operational resilience).

Across New South Wales (NSW) there are 128 local councils, all with the important role of building community, maintaining infrastructure, and supporting future developments as well as providing a range of social services.

On 10 November, APRA released their insights from their latest risk culture survey in an Insight, “No room for complacency on bank risk culture”. This survey was rolled out to 18 ADIs in late 2021. APRA’s analysis included matters for ADIs to consider, however in our experience these could equally be applied to insurers and Registerable Superannuation Entity Licences (RSELs).

APRA has released draft Prudential Standard CPS 230 Operational Risk Management for comment. CPS 230 will replace CPS 231: Outsourcing and CPS 232: Business Continuity, and the sector specific standards HPS 231, SPS 231 and SPS 232. What is operational resilience? Operational risk management analyses and defines risks associated with people, processes, and systems. Operational resilience defines the approach to managing operational risks.

Following the announcement of the CPS tripartite audits in November 2020, APRA began issuing notices to regulated entities to undergo the independent assessment. The reviews are part of APRA’s four year strategy to increase the rigor of compliance with CPS 234: Information Security.

On 3 November 2021, the High Court of Australia handed down a landmark decision, ruling that the “backpacker tax” imposed on a UK national who was deemed to be an Australian tax resident was in breach of the non-discrimination clauses in the Australia-UK Double Tax Agreement.

I’ve written before about COVID contact tracing apps and the need for robust privacy by design, supported by sufficient transparency and scrutiny.

Corporate governance has been a hot topic of discussion in Australia for many years – spearheaded by Royal Commissions, drilled home by corporate law changes to charge company directors with more responsibilities, and demanded by consumers and shareholders holding companies to a higher standard of behaviour and transparency.