No ghostwriter for this blog…

A member today asked me whether I really write this blog (and other stuff that goes out in my name). I’ve now been asked about this enough times that I thought to write and confirm that, for better or worse, I do indeed “pen” every word.

A special thanks to the London-based members that I met tonight who actually talked to me about this blog – proving they read it. It’s nice to know. We had a great turnout to a member CPD event near our London office tonight, as well as a good number participating in a “Euro Zone Webinar” that our CEO, Geoff Rankin, and I talked to. It is wonderful to meet so many active and actively engaged members.

Verbal reports from non-CPA Australia parties indicate that our members are prized by UK employers for their professionalism, skills, and outlook on life. This is always great to hear, but comes as no surprise.

State of the Nation

Last week I participated in CEDA’s “State of the Nation” activities in Canberra. CPA Australia is a sponsor of State of the Nation, as is Shell Australia. It was an interesting couple of days. Many CPA Australia members were present to mix it up with a swag of business and political leaders. I met with CPA Australia’s Canberra based staff, along with Jim and Norma Dickson (who will be known to many CPA members by virtue of Jim’s long former career with CPA Australia), on Sunday June 14 for discussion and debrief and then spent some time reviewing (non-CPA Australia) press coverage regarding Australia’s economy – not an altogether uplifting exercise.

Monday morning saw Treasurer Wayne Swan give the keynote breakfast address on the government’s economic agenda. Unsurprisingly, given that the federal budget was fairly recently delivered, the Treasurer didn’t say much that was new – other than offer somewhat oblique remarks about banks raising interest rates out of step with ministerial expectations. Sensing that the topic of interest rates was not one that attendees were in a mood to digest with their early morning fare, I skirted mention of them in the vote of thanks that I gave to the Treasurer on behalf of CPA Australia and CEDA members.

The next session was one that I was invited to chair. Intended as an economic address on “Budget reform in the light of the financial crisis” to be delivered by the Hon Lindsay Tannner, Minister for Finance and Deregulation, the delay of the Minister’s plane from Melbourne (yes, Canberra fog strikes again) and his need to leave in a hurry to attend a cabinet meeting, meant that it became a hastily delivered off-the-cuff report on the general economy. In my opinion, the Minister did a fantastic job of this. Each time I see Mr Tanner speak, his depth of knowledge and comfort with the issues seems to impress the audience (deservedly so, in my view), regardless of their personal view on policy and party politics.

We were fortunate in the afternoon to have four of Australia’s leading economists join a discussion panel for 90 minutes or so on “The financial crisis – implications for budget and policy priorities”. Gary Banks, Chairman of the Productivity Commission; Bill Evans, Global Head of Economics, Westpac; David Gruen, Executive Director, Macroeconomic Group, Australian Treasury; and Chris Richardson, Director, Access Economics held forth on a range of contemporary issues affecting the Australian economy. It was a spirited discussion, which I was pleased to be able to chair, and it was all the better for the quick barrage of interesting questions from a standing-room-only crowd. The general consensus of the panel – as reported in the Financial Review the next day – was that Australia is on a slow road to recovery and is likely to suffer some more ups and downs in coming months, but is in a better position than most other developed nations. Australia’s banking sector also got a general thumbs up from the panel, as did Australia’s regulatory environment.

Dinner provided an opportunity for the Hon Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition, to give his perspective on the “State of the Nation”. As one might expect, this turned out to be somewhat different to the one that had been proffered earlier in the day, but the message was delivered with good humour and the room was quite entertained by Mr Turnbull’s remarks on the quality of reporting by the Canberra Press Gallery, as well as by his views on some of the more recent depictions of him in the media.

As it transpires, events later in the week likely surpassed the “State of the Nation” gathering in terms of political impact – particularly for some of the key players who talked to CEDA members. Nevertheless, “State of the Nation” provided an engaging forum in which participants from a range of influential entities were able to meet to share thoughts on a range of interesting topics. From a branding, relationship building and advocacy standpoint, I think that “State of the Nation” is an important event for CPA Australia to participate in.

Australasian Reporting Awards

Last week I attended the Australasian Reporting Awards (ARAs) that were held on June 4 & 5 in Melbourne. CPA Australia is principal sponsor of the ARAs. Thursday night (June 4) was the awards presentation dinner. CPA Australia was well represented with Board member Graeme Wade in attendance along with past and present divisional presidents and councilors including Mike Sewell, Colin Murphy and John Horder, staff including Mike Adlam and Shane Scacco, and a host of CPA Australia members.

In front of a crowd of 500 or so – including many CPA Australia members – I was pleased to present two awards, the 2009 Electronic Reporting Award to Tower Australia Group Limited, and the 2009 Report of the Year Award to Port of Brisbane Corporation. I applaud both entities. Their fine work, and that of the other award winners, achieves a number of objectives including keeping the focus on world-class reporting, rewarding “good” companies, showcasing best practice, fostering aspirations in others, and instilling a heightened sense of accountability related to meaningful corporate reporting.

Friday was a day-long seminar program on reporting. I was fortunate to be asked to deliver the keynote address on “Reporting in difficult times: taking a global view on how, what and when to communicate to stakeholders”. I gave the talk to a packed room – an encouraging sign that there is widespread commitment to improving on reporting practices. Mike Sewell, Victorian division president, chaired the day and did a marvelous job in guiding discussion to get the most out of the presentations.

My congratulations to the entire ARA team including Chairman of the ARAs (and past president of CPA Australia) Alex Malley, Deputy Chairman Arthur Delbridge, and key organiser Marjorie Anderson. The event was professionally run from start to finish and it offered many CPA Australia members, as well as others, an opportunity to be rewarded for their talent, commitment and hard work in pursuing excellence in corporate reporting. I am told that the ARAs have been going strong for 59 years now… long may they continue!

2009 AGM… some of the things we’ve done

Last week I chaired CPA Australia’s 2009 Annual General Meeting in Melbourne. Reviewing the events of the past year reminded me of how much was done. Here are some highlights of what we achieved as an organisation during the past 12 months:

In 2008 membership numbers grew to more than 122,000 with nearly one-quarter of members based outside of Australia. We have members in 100 countries.We endorsed a new corporate plan which takes us through to 2011. In doing so we created an exciting new vision for CPA Australia as the global professional accounting designation for strategic business leaders.

We made member engagement an even greater priority. The Board made a commitment through a significant investment in new technology to facilitate more active communication and collaboration across our membership.

We continued to pursue global partnerships to provide members with world-class education programs and opportunities for knowledge exchange, with our ground-breaking partnership with Harvard Business Publishing being a case in point.

We introduced an expanded Good Practice Guide with content provided by members and by Australia’s top 20 corporations. A localised version was also launched in Asia.

We partnered with Deloitte and Ernst & Young to deliver new online learning resources to help members keep pace with changes in financial reporting standards and legislation.

We increased the number of accredited degree programs in Australia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.

We also entered into Mutual Recognition Agreements with three international accounting bodies – the United Kingdoms Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, the Certified General Accountants of Canada, and the Certified Management Accountants of Canada. This brings our total number of Mutual Recognition Agreements to 11.

We continued undertaking informed advocacy on behalf of members and the profession. This included a series of comprehensive submissions to the Australian Government on public policy issues including the review of the taxation system, emissions trading, the Government’s 2020 Ideas Summit, and the Bradley Review into Higher Education. Our advocacy outreach also reflected our increasingly global focus and profile. We organised, in conjunction with the Indonesian Institute of Accountants, a public sector conference in Jakarta which attracted the elite of government, academia and regulators.

Former Audit Quality Review Board Director Wayne Cameron presented at the Singapore Public Sector Forum held last July. And our 12th Asian Regional conference, held in Kuala Lumpur last August, attracted business and government leaders. We hosted a function in Beijing for Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan and the Chinese vice minister for Finance Wang Jun.

Linked in some ways to our advocacy initiatives, 2008 marked the moment when Corporate Social Responsibility became a hard-wired component of CPA Australia’s activities. We were the first professional accounting body to measure our carbon footprint, and we report on this in our Sustainability Report. We also contributed to the increasing awareness of the importance of non-financial reporting. This has been most visible in our status as an organisational stakeholder of the Global Reporting Initiative – the world-leading international body when it comes to non-financial reporting. We hosted the CEO and the Chairman of the Global Reporting Initiative at a conference last year.

Alex Malley introduced the ‘President’s Charity’ starting with support for Motor Neurone Disease. In doing so he established a new path linking CPA Australia to a worthwhile and human cause and we continue down that path this year by supporting the charity Room to Read.

And last Monday night at the AGM we approved an amended constitution. It is a constitution that further positions CPA Australia and its membership to respond quickly and decisively to the business challenges that will inevitably arise. It is a constitution that enables the organisational structures and processes that will keep our organisation strong, and it is a constitution that clearly enshrines the quality of our designation, the quality of our members, the quality of education we provide, and the tenor of the relationships that we establish with our key stakeholders.

 
Our work continues and I look forward to sharing an even greater number of successes with you at our next AGM.