Now lawBusiness & Trade Introduced in the House of Representatives, 12 Feb 2026

Three accounting rule bodies are merged into one

Three groups set the rules for company accounts, checks on those accounts and climate reports. They are joining into one new body called External Reporting Australia. It matters to every business that files accounts, and to anyone who relies on them.

Official name: Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Reporting System Reform) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• Companies that file money reports: Their rules for accounts, audits and climate reports will come from one body. The rules that exist now stay in place.
• Auditors and accountants: The rules they work to will be written by boards inside the new body.
• Investors and the public: Meetings about what goes in the rules must be held in public.
• Staff and members of the old bodies: Staff move across. Board members today stay on until the new body starts.

Three bodies set accounting rules

Companies must follow set rules when they write their accounts. These are called accounting standards. An audit is an outside check that a company's accounts are true and fair. Auditors, who do these checks, follow auditing standards.

Big companies now also report on climate risks. They follow a third set of rules, called sustainability standards.

Three bodies set these rules. The Australian Accounting Standards Board writes the accounting and climate reporting rules. The Auditing and Assurance Standards Board writes the audit rules. The Financial Reporting Council watches over both and gives advice to the minister.

In November 2023 the government said it would join them into one body. It said this would make it easier to add a board for the new climate rules. It would also help with new kinds of rules later.

The law changes the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001. That law sets up the company and finance watchdog, and these three bodies too. It also updates eight other laws.

External Reporting Australia

External Reporting Australia takes over the jobs of all three old bodies and their offices. It makes and updates the rules for accounts, audits and climate reports. It also keeps an eye on what rule writers overseas do. It gives advice to the minister.

The minister can give it new jobs later, such as writing a new kind of rule.

Rules made by the old boards stay in place. Their names do not have to change.

The Governing Council

A Governing Council runs External Reporting Australia. The minister picks its chair and members. The Council is in charge of the body's money, planning and how well it does.

Members need experience in fields such as law, business, money markets, accounting or auditing. Science, or climate and nature, also counts. The minister can also pick extra members who cannot vote.

The minister must make sure enough members are, and are seen to be, separate from auditors. This is because auditors both help write the rules and must follow them. The minister must also aim for a good mix of skills.

Expert boards write standards

The Governing Council must set up expert boards to write the rules. There must be at least one board for each kind of rule.

One board cannot do both accounting and climate reporting rules. So there will be at least two boards for those. One board can handle all audit rules, including checks of climate reports.

The Council sets up each board by a written rule that Parliament can check and cancel. That rule sets what the board covers and how it makes decisions.

Limits on the Council

The Council can make, change or scrap a rule that belongs to a board. To do that it most often needs 75 per cent of members to vote yes. It must also explain what it did in its yearly report.

Meetings about what goes in a rule must be open to the public. Members must quickly say if they have any personal interests. The chair must set a code of conduct, which is a set of rules on how to behave. It covers members, board members and staff who are not public servants.

Say a board writes a new rule on how companies count their debts. If the Council wanted to change it, three in four Council members would need to agree. The public could watch the meeting.

Audit quality advice ends

The Financial Reporting Council used to give advice on how good audits by Australian auditors were. It had powers to make accounting groups hand over facts for this.

External Reporting Australia does not take on this job or those powers. The company and finance watchdog keeps its own powers to look into auditors and their firms.

Moving to the new body

The Financial Reporting Council gets a head start. From the day after the law was signed, it can take steps to set up the new body, such as creating its boards. The government expects the first Council members to sit on the old council during this time.

On the start day, old council members become Governing Council members for the rest of their terms. Some board members' terms would have ended. These are made longer until the start day.

Staff, outside advisers and records move to the new body. Secret records stay protected. People keep their protection from being sued for things done honestly in their old jobs.

Start date

The bill went into the House of Representatives on 12 February 2026. That is the lower house of Parliament, where the government sits. It passed there on 5 March. A group of senators then looked at it.

The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 29 June 2026 with 14 changes put forward by the Greens. The House agreed to them on 30 June.

The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 6 July 2026. It became Act No. 61 of 2026. The rules for the move started on 7 July 2026.

External Reporting Australia starts on 1 November 2026. If it is later, it starts on the first day of the month four months after signing. That works out to 1 December 2026.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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