CONCLUDING REMARKS
Since the 1980s, it would seem almost axiomatic that accounting history is critically important to the appreciation and understanding of modern practice. In this paper, the extent of public sector auditing history, with a particular emphasis on auditor-general independence, has been assessed and examined. Findings determined that public sector auditing history can be traced via three essential discourses: (1) that of gap identification and rationalisation of the importance of public sector audit history (a grouping to which this paper belongs); (2) the teleology of auditor-general independence; and (3) modern contextual analysis. There is wide-ranging research identifying the importance and need for public sector audit history examination. It has been highlighted that it is crucial for educators and policymakers to have an understanding of the history and precedent in order to properly inform and defend current public sector audit practice (Gilchrist & Coulson, 2015; Pilcher et al., 2013). Without such an appreciation, important controls in constitutional arrangements in Britain and Australia, as well as elsewhere in developed democratic countries, might appear instead as merely bureaucratic intrusions generating inefficiencies or ineffectiveness.
