The Cerberus from Warringah: F.A. Bland and the Renaissance of the Public Accounts Committee

Abstract

In 1932 the Lyons UAP government suspended the operations of the Commonwealth parliament's public accounts committee, allegedly as an economy measure. The role of public accounts committees is, in principle, that of a non‐partisan reviewer of the public finances, but in this case the committee had diverged from its charter and become involved in politics and policy. Twenty years later, the Menzies government resurrected the committee. A crucial figure in its re‐establishment was F.A. Bland, variously a professor of public administration, member for Warringah in the House of Representatives, and a significant public intellectual from the 1920s to the 1960s. Today Bland is almost forgotten but the role the re‐established committee played in its early days was largely a reflection of his interests and commitments.