History of the Joint Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Audit

The year 2013 marked 100 years since the first Commonwealth Public Accounts Committee was established. The Committee has had a significant impact on public administration in Australia during that time.

The Committee has played a role in developing more effective financial framework legislation, establishing a Senior Executive Service, introducing a Charter of Budget Honesty, and instituting a range of important oversight authorities.

The Committee’s membership has included three future Prime Ministers, nine future Treasurers or Finance Ministers, eleven future Speakers or Senate Presidents, four future opposition leaders and more than 90 future Government Ministers.

A timeline of key events in the Committee’s history can be accessed here.

A recent paper on the evolving nature of the Committee’s oversight activities, presented to the Australasian Study of Parliament Group by a member of the Committee Secretariat, can be accessed here.

Some key historical facts related to the Committee are:

• The first Chair of the initial 1913 Public Accounts Committee was Mr Matthew Charlton MP

• The first Chair of the re-established 1951 Committee was Professor F.A. Bland MP

• The longest serving Chair was Professor F.A. Bland (1952 to 1960)

• The longest serving committee member was Senator John Watson (over 27 years between 1978 and 2008)

• The first female member of the Committee was Senator Ivy Wedgewood from 1955

• The first female Chair of the Committee was Ms Sharon Grierson MP from 2008

• As at November 2013, the Committee had presented 494 reports to the Parliament

A full list of the Committee’s reports can be accessed here.

A full list of former members of the Committee can be accessed here.

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