Hmm. I'm leaning towards Murusundram's argument.

I have an Auditing senior lecturer at Monash who is also the course coordinator for the Honours degree of accounting in both campuses (Caulfield and Clayton).

She is a CPA Aus holder and also a ICAA holder. She sits on the panel of some international accounting organization... and there has been strong sentiments that the CPA Aus is beginning to be more fee-oriented and is mainly interested in gaining more and more members. Many professionals in the field and also students taking CPA are disgruntled over the fact that non-accountants or those from non-accounting backgrounds can become a CPA holder easily now.

Previously, they had to do more modules or start from scratch with an accounting related degree or something like that, and now, they only need to sit for a few papers. Something along those lines.

I also spoke to many aussies and international students in my uni, and also several academicians, and they share the same sentiment. However, my lecturer still tells us that the answer to "should I do ICAA or CPA?" would be "do whatever your employer wants you to do" or do both if you can. For now.