AG to ICAA Audit Conference Melbourne 2009

 The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia 5  Audit Conference 2009 10  15  20  The Future of Audit 25  Melbourne 1 May, 2009 30  With thanks to Dr Stewart Ashe and Kevin Caruana of ANAO for their assistance with the preparation of this paper 35  Ian McPhee Auditor-General for Australia     INTRODUCTION On one view, auditing is a mature profession. It has a long history, going back to at least the th14 century, where the records of chamberlains and town treasurers were subject to audit by external officers. The importance of auditing grew with the expansion of commerce, the birth of the limited liability company and the rise of the stock markets in the early 1600s, as arrangements then applying empowered stockholders to employ auditors to check the accounts. Auditing has developed since then, been given statutory support and is arguably more important today than ever before. With the growth in commerce, the complexity of business structures and financial transactions, and the level of uncertainty in today’s world, the importance of assurance in relation to financial reporting and other critical business activities has never been greater. Today, the scale of the financial world is immense: “In 2006 the measured economic output of the entire world was around $47 trillion. The total market capitalisation of the world’s stock markets was $51 trillion, 10 per cent larger. The ...