The Australian Financial Review described him as “spectacularly impolite”. His epic stoush with PwC Australia has become the stuff of legend: he took them on for the way in which they betrayed Australia, sold our tax secrets to the likes of Google, and facilitated tax evasion and other forms of criminality. They went after him, which backfired spectacularly, and was reported in media all over the world.

Despite his forthrightness, his arguments are compelling, and his delivery flawless. As a result, his recommendations have been adopted around the world, and by numerous Australian Commissions of Inquiry

In more recent years, he has been cited extensively by major Senate and Parliamentary inquiries into:

• the investigation and enforcement methods of corporate regulator ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission);

• global accounting giant PwC and the other big accounting firms’ corrupt influence over the Australian Taxation Office and government departments;

• the market abuses of the Coles-Woolworths retail duopoly;

• bank closures in regional Australia;

• legislation to hold airlines accountable for cancelling flights and their arrogant indifference to their customers; and

• legislation to hold bank executives accountable for fraud and theft.

Andy’s unrelenting criticisms in his submissions and testimony were adopted, often entirely, in the Senate’s final recommendations in all of those inquiries.

He has also been cited by the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into how to fix Australia’s law on financial services, and his invited advice to the Banking Royal Commission led to the creation of the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority.