Connor Pearce in the Canberra Times has a worrying article about the under-resourcing of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) – which will conduct fewer performance audits in the coming years than it did under the Morrison Government:

“The Australian National Audit Office will not meet its target for the number of reports into misbehaving agencies it will publish this year as the independent oversight body struggles with a lack of funding.”

It’s a warning echoed by chair of the Public Accounts and Audit Committee, Labor Senator Linda Burney:

“The inability of the ANAO to deliver a full work program due to funding constraints is of serious concern to the committee, as it undermines the future of robust audit functions for the Commonwealth that can foster and drive efficiency and effectiveness throughout the public sector.”

The Auditor-General is responsible for making sure that taxpayer money is spent according to the rules and that the country is administered well. Past reports have shone a light on the “sports rorts” affair where grants were skewed towards marginal seats and the $30 million taxpayer dollars paid to a Liberal donor for land valued at one-tenth of that sum. Australia Institute researchers make use of Audit Office papers – like Rod Campbell and Maryanne Slattery’s work on “strategic water purchases”. https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/audit-of-strategic-water-purchases/

But over the years, the National Audit Office has been neglected. Back in 2011, the Auditor-General was resourced to conduct 55 performance audits a year. The number fell under the Coalition governments, and could get as low as 38 per year in the next term of government.

That’s despite most Australians seeing an *expanded* role for the Auditor-General: our polling research in 2022 found majority support for the Auditor-General to review government advertising to make sure it meets genuine information needs: https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/bad-impressions-scrutiny-of-government-advertising/