Accountability has taken a holiday during the election campaign.
With both houses of parliament dissolved and the government in caretaker mode, a raft of reports and reviews won't see the light of day until well after the July 2 federal election.
Among these are at least 14 reports by the auditor-general - which runs an eye over all government spending and management of taxpayer-funded programs - which were due to be released in May and June.
As well, MPs and senators are not required during the campaign to update their pecuniary interest register entries.
A note on the parliament website says the register has "closed", but all members elected on July 2 will be asked to lodge a statement of interests which includes "any alterations and relevant gifts received since the date of dissolution".
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"Accountability can't take a holiday if we are coming into an election," Greens senator Lee Rhiannon told AAP on Wednesday.
"It's clear we have a problem."
She said all government agencies and departments should "err on the side of public disclosure", whether or not an election is in train.
Griffith University governance expert Professor Anne Tiernan told AAP that under their enabling legislation, bodies that scrutinise government say they are accountable to the parliament.
"But with the election called and houses dissolved there's no parliament to be accountable to," she said.
Part of the problem lay in the House of Representatives running for a non-fixed three-year term, unlike the state parliaments which now all have adopted four-year fixed terms.
"If the commonwealth was in line with rest of Australia then these kinds of matters would be resolved - the bureaucracy would know their business needs to be wrapped up by a particular time and integrity agencies could plan for it as they do in other jurisdictions."
