Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) This Part applies to an audit firm as if it were a person, but with the changes set out in this section.
(2) An obligation that would otherwise be imposed on the firm by a provision of this Part is imposed on each member of the firm instead, but may be discharged by any of the members.
(3) An offence based on a provision of this Part that would otherwise be committed by the audit firm is taken to have been committed by each member of the firm.
(4) A member of the firm does not commit an offence because of subsection (3) if the member:
(a) does not know of the circumstances that constitute the contravention of the provision concerned; or
(b) knows of those circumstances but takes all reasonable steps to correct the contravention as soon as possible after the member becomes aware of those circumstances.
Note: A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in subsection (4)--see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code .