Big four consultancy firms should have partner numbers slashed by up to 600, Australian inquiry says

Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, who chaired the joint committee on corporations and financial services, says the inquiry revealed ‘corporate nightmares’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Big four firms should be banned from providing a client both audit and consultancy services at the same time, and have their number of partners slashed by up to 600, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended.

But it stopped short of calling for a ban on political donations or for the structural separation of consultancy firms to reduce conflicts of interest, as recommended by the former competition watchdog chair Allan Fels.