KPMG's Canberra blockbuster
If you're prepared to cheat your way into an audit contract, what might you do to keep one?
In the last month, I've seen Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and binged the latest series of The Agency, on which Hollywood spent a combined US$500 million ($700 million) to render the duplicity and folly of man as blockbuster entertainment.
Yet in that task, neither held a candle to the public hearings of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services two Fridays ago in Canberra. I won't pretend ParlView is the world's most dynamic AVOD platform, but it is deep in an indie-budget programming purple patch after the runaway success of its PwC tax leaks scandal inquiries of 2023 and 2024. They really should call this series, Why the F— isn't Deb O'Neill a Cabinet Minister?
A star-studded cast
The stars of the latest riveting show were KPMG's expelled COO Eileen Hoggett and Westpac's former signing auditor Kim Lawry, alongside a star-studded supporting cast of former KPMG chairman Martin Sheppard and his successor Michael Ebeid, former CEO Andrew Yates and Allens' head of investigations Ross Drinnan. Even Macquarie chairman Glenn Stevens, Dexus chair Warwick Negus and Westpac director Michael Ullmer had memorable walk-on roles.
For those in need of a refresher, an internal KPMG whistleblower alleged that – among other things – the firm used the confidential information of its client Lendlease to help inform competitive tenders for Westpac's audit work. In September 2025, KPMG brought in Allens, which failed to search KPMG's email system and three months later produced a vindicating report of almost celestial sophistry.
