Background

The Public Accounts and Estimates Committee is a joint house investigatory committee of the Victorian Parliament constituted under the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003. The Committee is unique in Australia because it has the dual responsibility of scrutinising both the public accounts and the budget estimates.

Under the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, the functions of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee are to inquire into, consider, and report to Parliament on:

• any proposal, matter or thing concerned with public administration or public sector finances;
  
• the annual estimates or receipts and payments and other budget papers and any supplementary estimates of receipts or payments presented to the Assembly and the Council;
  
• any proposal, matter or thing that is relevant to its function and has been referred to the Committee by resolution of the Legislative Council or the Legislative Assembly or by order of the Governor in Council published in the Government Gazette; and

Under the Audit Act 1994:

• various statutory responsibilities in relation to the activities, performance and statutory functions of the Office of the Auditor-General.

A new Committee of the 56th Parliament was established as a ten-member Committee by the Parliamentary Legislation Amendment Act 2007. The Committee has members from the ALP, the Liberal Party, the National Party and the Greens and from both houses of the Parliament.

Established in 1895, the Victorian Public Accounts and Estimates Committee is the oldest in Australia.