Discussion of the influence of culture on the international development and harmonization of accounting has focused primarily upon indigenous characteristics which are confined within national boundaries. But cultural inputs, such as religion, which transcend national boundaries, should not be overlooked. Islam is a particular case in point. Its principles commit Muslims to a definitive code of ethical commercial and personal behaviour affecting both the structuring and financing of business affairs between the faithful, and between Muslims and non‐Muslims. Islam has the potential for influencing the structure, underlying concepts and the mechanisms of accounting in the Islamic world. Its potential for influencing accounting policy is illustrative of religion as a confounding element in the analysis of national idiosyncrasies in accounting practice and in deconstructing the impediments to international harmonization.

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The background to the widespread adoption by Australian public trading enterprises of a deprival value variant of current cost accounting reflects successive efforts to establish demanding rate of return targets, or to legitimise price increases, or to monitor the financial performance of PTEs on a national basis. The experience of three public utilities in implementing CCA is reviewed. This experience suggests that CCA valuation of infrastructure (using deprival or optimized deprival values) is unable to deliver financial data to permit valid cross‐sectional and longitudinal comparisons of performance. Issues raised during the 1970s and 1980s debates about CCA were either ignored or overlooked.

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The article proposes a more effective system for reporting on infrastructure held by public sector agencies, having regard to the information needs of users of public sector reports, and with specific reference to concerns about inter-generational equity. It initially reviews options for accounting and reporting on the condition and value of infrastructure, and on proposed routine, overdue or deferred maintenance expenditure. A distinction is drawn between major cyclical or seasonal maintenance expenditure necessary to maintain or restore infrastructure, and projected expenditure to replace or upgrade facilities to meet higher standards of functionality or service quality. The options identified here entail combinations of asset valuations, balance sheet depictions and associated disclosures. They also encompass supplementary disclosures concerning such matters as physical condition, asset management plans, and contractual commitments to perform maintenance or other works. Most embody assumptions about the future use of infrastructure.An assessment of those options suggests that the optimal mode of reporting would not involve 'recognition' of deferred maintenance as a liability, as a contra asset or as a component of equity (the treatments frequently advocated). Rather, it would involve a package of supplementary financial and non-financial disclosures-with the latter incorporating a combination of descriptive information and condition ratings for assets of differing economic lives, and statements of assumptions about future asset use. Possibly these disclosures could be augmented by disclosures of proposed or projected cash flows on future maintenance and upgrading work.

This paper was stimulated by the chilling vision of the corporate university described by Moore and touted by numerous others. It exposes the ways in which Newman’s The Idea of a University will be abrogated and transformed by corporate universities. Fundamental issues are raised about the nature and purpose of universities and about the roles of its professors and schools of business, especially in a world characterized by “the triumph of the market”. An urgent plea is proferred for broader debate about the place of Corporate Universities in business higher education.

The Australian accounting profession has advocated that infrastructure should be accounted for by reporting it at current written down replacement values, on the basis that these financial disclosures would provide relevant information to stakeholders. While local councils are required to apply the profession’s asset valuation and accrual standards in preparing general purpose financial reports, the State of New South Wales has gone further by requiring local councils to also present information about the physical condition of infrastructure, together with estimates of the cost of bringing that infrastructure to a satisfactory condition, and the annual costs of maintaining infrastructure at that standard thereafter. This paper examines how this information was reported for 1995‐96. Analysis of reporting practices suggest that while there are some anomalies and uncertainties surrounding the rating of physical condition and the concept of “satisfactory condition”, the disclosures provided by NSW local government are more informative and arguably more relevant to external stakeholders and those responsible for asset management in local government than the information currently prescribed by accounting standards.

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