Across very different industries, from insolvency and water to auditing and professional services, the same pattern repeatedly emerges: the people responsible for regulating an industry can become too closely connected to the people they are supposed to regulate.

Conflicts of interest arise. Warning signs are missed. Scandals emerge. There is public outrage, an inquiry or review, promises of reform, and then, all too often, business continues as usual.

This event examines how self-regulation, industry-led regulation and regulatory capture can turn regulation into little more than an appearance of accountability.

Bringing together speakers with direct experience and expertise across different sectors and jurisdictions, we will explore what happens when professional standards, corporate governance and regulatory oversight fail, and what can be done to make regulation more independent, effective and accountable.

The Australian consulting and audit industry

Professor Brendan Lyon – KPMG whistleblower

Brendan Lyon, a former KPMG partner, will discuss his experience of raising concerns about a report involving a New South Wales Government rail corporation. After refusing to change the report, which challenged the financial arrangements underpinning the corporation, he lost his position at KPMG. The subsequent intervention of the New South Wales Auditor-General supported his concerns. Lyon has since spoken publicly about the pressures he faced and wider questions of accountability within the consulting industry.

• Click here to read Professor Brendan Lyon’s article “The Australian Public Service: What of the Sovereign’s own Capability”.
• Click here to read Professor Brendan Lyon and David Johnstone’s article “Watchdog or Show Dog? Incentives and Competitive Advantages of the Big 4 under Australia’s Professional Standards Act”.
• Click here to read the Judgement: Lyon v Professonal Standards Council of New South Wales
• Click here to watch a 7.30 video clip about KPMG’s leadership crisis and the controversy over alleged misuse of confidential information.
• Click here to watch a clip from ABC News about Professor Brendan Lyon’s case.

James Guthrie – KPMG Scandal

James Guthrie will examine the KPMG scandal and the wider problems created by conflicts of interest within the Big Four accounting firms, including the impact on audit independence and whistleblowers. He will consider why self-regulation has failed and make the case for structural separation between audit and consulting services.

• Click here to read “Auditing the Auditors: Consultant Dependency, Whistleblower Retaliation, and Case for Structural Separation”

Dr Shann Turnbull – Puryfying Capitalism with People-Powered Stakeholder Co-Regulators

Dr Shann Turnbull will explore how organisations could move beyond conventional top-down management and ineffective forms of self-regulation by adopting people-powered, polycentric systems of self-governance. Drawing on the work of Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom and principles found in nature, he will consider how stakeholder co-regulation could be built into the governance of organisations, creating more accountable and resilient forms of capitalism.

• Click here to read the Account Times article “Inoculate KPMG, auditors against ethical blindness, academic say”.

Andy Schmulow – The audit profession in Australia

Andy Schmulow will address scandals involving major Australian accounting firms and the questions they raise about professional self-regulation, conflicts of interest, whistleblower protection and the ability to hold firms themselves accountable.

• Click here to read Dr Andy Schmulow and Dr Corinne Cortese’s submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee entitled “The only crime is getting caught. Inquiry into Management and Assurance of Integrity by Consulting Services (Consulting Services)”
• Click here to read Dr Andy Schmulow’s submission to the Parliamentary Join Committee on Corporation and Financial services, entitled “Ethics and Professional Accountability: Structural Challenges in the Audit, Assurance and Consultancy Industry”
• Click here to read Dr Andy Schmulow’s submission to the Attorney-General’s Department, entitled “Joint Review of the use of Legal Professional Privilege (LPP) in Commonwealth Investigations”
• Click here to read the PJCCFS Hearing, 8 May 2024: Ethics and Professional Accountability (Proof Hansard)
• Click here to read the final report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, entitled “Ethics and Professional Accountability: Structural Challenges in the Audit, Assurance and Consultancy Industry”.
• Click here to read the final report of the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee, entitled “Management and assurance of integrity by consulting services”.
• Click here to watch a clip of Dr Andy Schmulow on ABC News Australia talking about calls for PWC to be banned from taking over government contracts.

The UK water industry

Sue Jaffer – The UK water industry

Sue Jaffer will examine the rationale for privatising the UK’s water and sewerage industry and the regulatory regime established to oversee it. She will explore why regulation failed, why warning signs were missed, and how shareholder-value-driven corporate governance undermined effective regulation. She will conclude by considering how a corporate-purpose approach to governance could support, rather than undermine, regulation.

• Click hereto listen to Sue Jaffer’s podcast episode on “Why Better Corporate Governance Could Save England and Wales’ Water Industry”.
• Click hereto read Sue Jaffer’s article in the International Journal of Water Resources Development entitled “The regulation, governance and performance of the water and sewerage industry in England and Wales”

The UK Insolvency Industry

Stephen Middleton – The UK insolvency industry

Stephen Middleton is a former banker and financial adviser who has worked for the past decade as a regulatory consultant and Chief Adviser to BankConfidential C.I.C. Alongside Director Mark Wright and whistleblowers, he co-authored the Hidden Credit Lines report launched in November 2025, which examines allegations concerning interest rate swaps and fixed-rate loans sold by UK banks and their impact on small and medium-sized businesses.

Stephen will now examine the role of insolvency in the aftermath of alleged financial malpractice, including concerns about how insolvency processes can affect the ability of businesses and individuals to pursue claims against financial institutions. He will consider the role of insolvency practitioners and the wider questions this raises about conflicts of interest, accountability and the effectiveness of regulation within the UK insolvency industry.

• Click here to read BankConfidential’s report “Interest-Rate Swaps & Fixed-Rate Loans: Hidden Credit Lines – Mis-selling or the Largest Financial Fraud in British Banking?”

The state of UK regulatory enforcement

Maia Kirby – The State of UK Regulatory Enforcement

Maia Kirby will examine the state of regulatory enforcement in the UK, drawing on Good Jobs First’s research and Violation Tracker UK. She will explore how under-resourced regulators, weak enforcement, fragmented oversight and conflicting regulatory priorities are leaving workers, consumers and communities inadequately protected, and consider what needs to change to make regulation more effective and accountable.

• Click here to read the Good Jobs First report “Protection All We Care About: The State of UK Regulatory Enforcement”.

The wider questions

Further speakers and perspectives will be added to the programme as details are confirmed, broadening the discussion across different industries, regulatory models and jurisdictions.

Although these cases are very different, they reveal strikingly similar problems: conflicts of interest, revolving doors, weak sanctions, inadequate whistleblower protection, fragmented oversight and regulators that can become too close to the industries they oversee.

So what does effective regulation actually look like?

Is it possible for an industry to regulate itself when its members’ commercial interests are at stake? Can professional bodies simultaneously represent an industry and credibly discipline it? And when regulation fails, who holds the regulators themselves to account?

This event will consider whether the answer lies in independent regulation, meaningful enforcement, greater transparency and genuine accountability outside the industries being regulated.

Because if those responsible for regulating an industry are ultimately accountable to the industry itself, can we really call it regulation?