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Mandatory digital financing reporting could be the key to driving productivity higher.
Australia’s productivity crisis has a digital solution hiding in plain sight
20 June 2025
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7 minute read
Australia is in the midst of a productivity reckoning. With growth stagnating, wages flatlining, and global capital increasingly bypassing our shores, the question is no longer whether we need reform—but where to start.
One answer is hiding in plain sight: mandating digital financial reporting for listed companies.
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It might not sound as headline-grabbing as tax reform or energy policy, but digital reporting is a low-cost, high-impact reform that could unlock billions in productivity gains, turbocharge transparency, and make Australia’s capital markets globally competitive again.
Australia is one of the few advanced economies that still allows listed companies to file financial reports as static PDFs. In a world where artificial intelligence is transforming investment decisions, audit practices, and regulatory oversight, this is the digital equivalent of sending a fax in the age of the cloud.
And it has real consequences. According to Deloitte Access Economics, mandating digital financial reporting could add $7.7 billion to the Australian economy by 2030.
We urgently need to fix the inefficiencies that plague our reporting systems. As the Federal Government continues to roll out mandatory climate-related financial disclosures, companies are already bracing for a wave of new reporting obligations. Without a digital framework, this will mean more PDFs, more complexity, and more confusion.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world has left us behind. The United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Germany, and India have all mandated digital reporting using XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), which is a global standard that makes financial data machine-readable, comparable, and instantly accessible.
In fact, nine of the world’s ten largest economies have already adopted or are phasing in digital reporting mandates. We need to catch up.
If we don’t, it sends the message to global investors that Australia is not ready to do business in the digital age.
AI is revolutionising how capital is allocated. But AI is only as good as the data it consumes. Without structured, digital financial data, Australia’s companies are effectively invisible to the algorithms driving global capital flows.
Investors are demanding this reform. A 2024 survey by Chartered Accountants ANZ found that 71% of Australian investors support a legislated mandate for digital reporting, with 90% believing digital reporting will improve accessibility to financial reports. More than half of Chartered Accountants surveyed across Australia also support a legislated mandate.
Ten years ago, the argument against digital reporting was cost. Today, that argument doesn’t hold. Software is cheaper, integration is easier, and most listed companies already have the systems in place to make the switch.
Voluntary adoption hasn’t worked, because the value of digital reporting lies in consistency. Just like accounting standards, it only works when everyone plays by the same rules.
The fix is simple – amend the Corporations Act to require listed and equivalent public interest entities to lodge their financial reports in digital form, using the globally recognised XBRL format. Make the data freely available. Invest in the infrastructure to support the transition. And review how digital reporting can streamline duplicative reporting across government agencies.
This is not radical, it’s responsible. This reform isn’t about the future – it is happening now, and Australia is already running late. Financial reporting is digital. It’s time to ditch the PDFs.
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