Twenty-fifth Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference
25
He was concerned about parliamentary scrutiny of the finances of government, both of departments with Ministers and, to borrow the British term, QANGOS-statutory
horities that in many ways had become laws unto themselves.
Australia was evolving a parliamentary committee system to study these Federal bodies, of which there were some 250, engaged in every kind of business from running an overseas airline to controlling the distribution and sale of wheat. They had a significant effect on the economy, yet had been found to be subject to very little direct control, as a study of the Wheat Board's activities had revealed. The board dealt with sums of $800 million or $900 million a year, but it had not reported to the Government for some 3 years. The Senate committee had taken this seriously and the board now had the spectre of disciplinary action before it. That had not been an isolated case. The Australian Senate would continue to
evolve financial oversights for statutory authorities that acted outside Government control.