TPB managing conflict of interest issues ‘appropriately’, chair tells inquiry
Peter de Cure has sought to assure senator Deborah O'Neill that the TPB is carefully managing any potential conflict of interest he may have with the KPMG investigation, given his previous ties to the firm.
Responding to a letter sent to him by senator Deborah O’Neill, TPB chair and former KPMG tax partner Peter de Cure has looked to assure the Senate committee conducting the inquiry into KPMG that any perceived conflict of interest arising from his former role as a partner of KPMG “is being managed with due care, transparency and regard to public interest".
In his 21 July letter, he said that soon after becoming aware of the matter, he initially considered avoiding all engagement “of any type with the matter”.
“I came to the view that I had no conflict of interest that would require me to take this step,” he said. … full text via MD
Chair of tax regulator recuses himself from KPMG probe
Tax Practitioners Board chairman Peter de Cure has been forced to recuse himself from the body’s investigation into KPMG’s data misuse scandal following his failure to comply with conflict of interest rules.
Tax Practitioners Board chairman Peter de Cure has been forced to recuse himself from the body’s investigation into KPMG’s data misuse scandal following his failure to comply with conflict of interest rules.
De Cure, a KPMG partner for nearly 25 years until 2013, put a special conflict management plan in place earlier this month preventing him from discussing the probe with staff or fellow board members, after admitting he failed to declare he was briefed by a KPMG audit partner and called the whistleblower a “disgruntled” employee.
Tax Practitioners Board chairman Peter de Cure has recused himself from the body’s investigation of KPMG. Alex Ellinghausen
The special conflict policy specifies that staff at the regulator communicate any KPMG investigation matters via board member and academic Kerrie Sadiq.
De Cure has told parliament he has no ongoing financial or employment links with KPMG but admitted he has attended multiple KPMG-sponsored lunches and that he sits on three boards that are audited by the firm.
“Mr de Cure is a director of three entities that KPMG provides audit services to,” the Tax Practitioners Board said in a response to parliamentary questions from Greens senator Barbara Pocock.
“From time to time, Mr de Cure has attended audit-related lunches for KPMG audit clients. Mr de Cure has disclosed these attendances to the TPB Board.
“To avoid any perception of conflict, Mr de Cure has in past cases excluded himself from any decision-making in relation to matters connected to KPMG. For the current investigation, Mr de Cure will take the same approach.”
The special conflict policy was created after The Australian Financial Review revealed in July that de Cure had failed to disclose a KPMG briefing on the data misuse scandal and had criticised the whistleblower.
De Cure also downplayed the body’s investigation into the data misuse in a parliamentary testimony in June, saying at the time the board was “not at this stage conducting a formal investigation” because the allegations were not related to the provision of tax services.
This came despite the body having already repeatedly used its extensive powers to get information from KPMG – powers only available during formal investigations into potential misconduct.
The body plays a critical role in policing the mostly unregulated big four accounting partnerships because it is the only federal regulator with the power to investigate KPMG as a whole. This made it instrumental in uncovering the PwC tax leaks scandal.
The Tax Practitioners Board told a parliamentary committee investigating the claims that de Cure had adopted the special conflict policy due to the “heightened interest and sensitivity” of the allegations.
“I discussed the matter with the [Tax Practitioners Board secretary Andrew Orme], and I agreed that the best course was to recuse myself from any decision-making in relation to the matter,” de Cure told the committee.
De Cure declined to respond to questions about when he had spoken to the KPMG partner about the scandal or the details of their discussion. He also declined to respond to queries about whether he’d had any communications with any other KPMG personnel about the scandal.
In response to these queries, the body referred to its response to the parliamentary committee, despite this letter not dealing with those specific questions.
A spokeswoman for Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, who extended de Cure’s position as chairman until 2029 in March, said, “the government [had] full confidence in the board carrying out its functions under the act consistent with their responsibilities and obligations as Commonwealth officials.”
KPMG has been engulfed in a damaging scandal after a whistleblower, a former executive at the firm, claimed audit partners misused confidential client data and leveraged conflicted relationships to win work.
The claims – many of which have been substantiated – and the firm’s mismanagement of them, have led to multiple senior executives leaving KPMG.
- KPMG will sack dozens of partners, 1000 staff amid audit scandal fallout
- KPMG directors failed to use ‘unrestricted’ powers to probe claims
- KPMG banned from Victorian government work with millions at stake
- KPMG sacks senior partner after finding she hid board documents
- Macquarie orders ‘integrity’ review amid questions over KPMG audit win
- Ashurst warned KPMG of Lendlease breach ‘risk’ last August
- Rear Window | KPMG looks internally for salvation
- Chanticleer | KPMG’s new CEO is already running out of time
- KPMG announces new CEO following audit scandal fallout
- KPMG partners fined up to $180,000 over Telstra, Optus misconduct
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Regulator upgrades KPMG investigation amid bias concerns
The head of the Tax Practitioners Board, Peter de Cure, has confirmed that the regulator has upgraded its KPMG probe to a formal investigation and has defended referring to the whistleblower as an aggrieved employee.
De Cure, who was a KPMG partner for nearly 25 years until 2013, also conceded that he did not declare to the regulator’s board that a KPMG audit partner had spoken to him about the scandal, which has engulfed the firm since March.
Tax Practitioners Board chairman Peter de Cure told The Australian Financial Review he had “not expressed a concluded view on anything to do with the KPMG matter”.
These admissions have sparked concern about the ability of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) to hold KPMG accountable. The board is the only regulator with the power to investigate the firm as a whole and was instrumental in uncovering the PwC tax leaks scandal.
According to several people with knowledge of the matter who are not authorised to speak publicly, it is claimed that de Cure has pushed the idea – as recently as a fortnight ago – that the allegations could be from an aggrieved employee.
This is the view initially pushed by KPMG’s executives internally and to clients seemingly to play down the allegations, which relate to data misuse by the firm’s auditors. KPMG also treated the whistleblower’s disclosure as a human resources issue. The firm has since apologised, and many of the allegations have been substantiated.
De Cure told The Australian Financial Review he had “not expressed a concluded view on anything to do with the KPMG matter”.
On the reference to the whistleblower as an aggrieved employee, he said: “It was a generic discussion about the matter at large and doesn’t reflect on the truthfulness of their evidence or the wrongfulness of the behaviour that is alleged to have occurred.”
“I stand by what I said in parliament. Our work at that point was at an early stage.”
The Financial Review understands de Cure also discussed the KPMG leaks matter within the TPB in conversations, while recusing himself from any “decision-making”.
De Cure said he had recused himself from ”being involved in the board conduct committee that once the investigation is done will decide if there have been any breaches of the law and if any sanctions are required”, given his history with the firm. He has not received any compensation from KPMG since he left in 2013, but worked there for 25 years.
The conversation with a KPMG audit partner that de Cure did not disclose to the board came about in his capacity as chair of the audit committee of Royal Flying Doctor Service SA/NT, which is audited by KPMG. Partners at the firm have been calling clients since the scandal first hit to reassure them about the allegations. Earlier in the crisis, this included pushing the aggrieved employee narrative.
“I didn’t disclose that” to the TPB board, de Cure said. “I received a phone call from the relevant audit partner to reassure me that these matters had no impact on the RFDS SA/NT audit.”
This is despite de Cure saying that “every board conduct meeting we have, we always acknowledge where we’ve had contact or there is a potential conflict”.
De Cure has denied expressing the view that the investigation is not a priority and should be wrapped up without findings against the firm as quickly as possible.
The chair had previously played down the significance of the TPB’s investigation into the KPMG leaks matter.
In a June 4 parliamentary hearing, de Cure told Greens senator Barbara Pocock that the TPB was “not at this stage conducting a formal investigation because at this stage it appears to relate to audit matters and not the provision of tax services”.
But he also acknowledged that the body had used its extensive powers to obtain information from KPMG and that the firm had responded “by sharing with us the same information” shared with a parliamentary committee investigating the matter.
“I stand by what I said in parliament. Our work at that point was at an early stage,” de Cure said on Monday.
The TPB’s former chief executive, Michael O’Neill, who was pivotal in exposing how PwC partners leaked confidential government data, was reassigned in late 2025 to a more junior role at a different agency. The transfer occurred after tax officials made six attempts to sideline or sack O’Neill.
Pocock said de Cure “must recuse himself from the TPB investigation into KPMG as this raises a very obvious conflict of interest”.
“Anything less than a proper, full and conflict-of-interest-free investigation is unacceptable and akin to the Michael O’Neill debacle.”
The TPB has been liaising with KPMG’s head of tax and legal, Ben Travers, when requesting documents and information about the allegations. Travers is one of the KPMG partners in the running for the permanent CEO role.
A KPMG spokesman said the firm “continues to engage constructively with the TPB on this matter”.