Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the general discussion about this bill and the amendments and the contribution made by Senator Whish-Wilson, does Minister Cormann agree that general purpose financial reports provide more information? I have in front of me the Statement of Accounting Concepts SAC2: Objective of general purpose financial reporting, which is prepared by the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board of the Australian Accounting Research Foundation and by the Accounting Standards Review Board. The statement defines a 'general purpose financial report' as:

… a financial report intended to meet the information needs common to users who are unable to command the preparation of reports tailored so as to satisfy, specifically, all of their information needs;

In contrast, special purpose accounts reporting is much more constrained. It gives next to no information about a company. It may just give their revenue for the year. It gives a paucity of information. General purpose accounts are not onerous. They are equivalent to the information that a publicly listed company provides to the ASX.