A parliamentary committee examining KPMG’s audit misconduct is calling senior leaders from Macquarie and Westpac to give evidence, focusing on how the firm used conflicted ties to secure audit mandates. The committee has formally contacted both banks to nominate appropriate senior representatives.
For Westpac, the committee has specifically requested the attendance of a director who recently took over as audit committee chair and previously held a senior partnership at KPMG. That connection sits at the centre of concerns about the overlap between governance roles and prior audit work.
Attention is also on Macquarie, where the committee is weighing whether to summon a director who spent many years as an audit partner at KPMG before joining the bank’s board. Another potential witness is a former Westpac director who previously served as a senior partner at KPMG and stepped down from the bank’s board last month.
Both individuals embody the revolving-door dynamic between major audit firms and the boards they later oversee. Those relationships are the kind of structural tension the inquiry is probing.
No final list of witnesses has been confirmed. Internal expectations at KPMG suggest both ex-partners now on bank boards are likely to be called.
Their evidence would help clarify how past audit relationships intersect with current board responsibilities at large financial institutions. It would also test whether Australia’s existing rules on auditor independence and board composition are robust enough when former audit partners move into powerful directorships.
