Accounting Standards in the Australian and New Zealand Public Administrations : Experiences and Perspectives

This paper examines the current move to the international harmonisation of public sector accounting standards in Australia and New Zealand. It argues that an examination of the historical arrangements to standard setting will do much to inform the current dilemmas posed by the current international harmonisation process. New Zealand has always had an 'adoption' culture and has had sector neutral standards. On the other hand, in Australia the private sector has dominated the consciousness of the professional accounting standards regulators. The public sector has been the forgotten sector, and rather than being allowed to develop its own standards that suit its unique operating characteristics, it has had to fall in line with the political decisions made on behalf of the private sector. The paper draws on examples to illustrate the unintended consequences of these decisions