The Role of accounting in legitimising the culture of the Australian construction industry

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the underlying conflict between a lawless culture and accounting practices within the context of the Australian Construction Industry. This provided an opportunity to examine accounting’s role as a legitimising process, within the context of the Critical Accounting perspective of whether accounting practice is objective or subjective. In doing so, the aim was to examine the social system that accountants work within this industry. The thesis explores the role of accounting within this complex industry at a period of time, the 2003 Royal Commission, where its lawlessness had become such that society recognised its social contract was breached and told the industry that this behavior would no longer be tolerated.