5th June 2014

The following abbreviations are used throughout this report:

AASB
Australian Accounting Standards Board
ANAO
Australian National Audit Office
AOSSG
Asian-Oceanian Standards Setters Group
APES
Accounting Professional and Ethical Standard
APESB
Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board
APPC
Australian Public Policy Committee
AQRB
Audit Quality Review Board
ASA
Australian Auditing Standard
ASIC
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
ASIC Act
Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001
ASQC
Australian Quality Control Standard
ASRB
Accounting Standards Review Board (of New Zealand)
ASX
Australian Securities Exchange
ATO
Australian Taxation Office
AUASB
Auditing and Assurance Standards Board
CALDB
Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board
Corporations Act
Corporations Act 2001
CPAAOB
Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (of Japan)
CPP
Certificate of Public Practice
EC
European Commission
EU
European Union
FASB
Financial Accounting Standards Board (of the USA)
FRC
Financial Reporting Council
FRC-UK
Financial Reporting Council (of the UK)
FRSB
Financial Reporting Standards Board (of New Zealand)
FSA-UK
Financial Services Authority (of the UK)
FSA-J
Financial Services Agency (of Japan)
FSB
Financial Stability Board
GAAP
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
GFS
Government Finance Statistics
IAASB
International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board
IASB
International Accounting Standards Board
ICAA
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
IFAC
International Federation of Accountants
IFRS
International Financial Reporting Standards
IIRC
International Integrated Reporting Committee
IPA
Institute of Public Accountants (formerly National Institute of Accountants)
IPSAS
International Public Sector Accounting Standard
IPSASB
International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board
ISA
International Standard on Auditing
MOU
Memorandum of Understanding
NIA
See IPA
NZASB
Accounting Standards Board (of New Zealand)
NZAuASB
Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (of New Zealand)
NZICA
New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants
PCAOB
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (of the USA)
PPC
Public Practice Certificate
PPQA
Public Practice Quality Assurance Review
PSB
Professional Standards Board (of New Zealand)
QA
Quality assurance
RCA
Registered company auditor
RDR
Reduced Disclosure Regime
SEC
Securities and Exchange Commission (of the USA)
SEM
Single Economic Market
SMEs
Small and medium-sized entities
SMSF
Self-Managed Superannuation Fund
TTAASAG
Trans-Tasman Accounting and Auditing Standards Advisory Group
Treasury
Australian Treasury
UK
United Kingdom
USA
United States of America
XRB
External Reporting Board (of New Zealand)

Australian auditors, auditors, individual auditors, audit firms and audit companies

The ASIC and Corporations Acts use a number of terms to describe the individuals, firms and companies that may be appointed as auditor for a company or a registered scheme under Part 2M.4 of the Corporations Act.
The expression 'Australian auditor', which is used in Part 12 of the ASIC Act for setting the scope of the FRC's auditor independence function, is defined in section 5 of that Act to mean an individual auditor, an audit firm or an audit company.

In the Corporations Act, the terms 'individual auditor', 'audit firm' and 'audit company' are used to describe the manner in which the requirements of the Act apply to the different structures under which an audit practice may be conducted: sole trader, partnership and company.

For purposes of consistency and to simplify drafting, this report uses the expression audit firm to refer to all three structures.