Transparency is essential with Chalmers’ creation of new accounting standard-setting beast

New governments like to tinker with the machinery of government when they get into power and no area — even the most arcane, technical, jargon-laden territory like accounting and audit — is immune from prying fingers eager to dabble.

Accounting and audit, in particular, have been fertile ground for governments wanting to have a lasting impact in the past, and those with enough grey hair and a half-decent corporate memory will recall the Howard government decided to engage in an exercise of Renovation Rescue when it took office in 1996.