Senator Deborah O'Neill was the subject of conversation during the tea and lunch breaks at the inaugural Deakin University audit conference held in Melbourne late last week.Her speech attacking the partners at EY was front of mind amongst many of the attendees given that it had taken place only two days before the conference.It received several reactions from attendees in private conversations - some of which are definitely not for polite company nor repeating in publication.What the conversations did contain at the heart was a deal of concern about the tone of the speech in parliament and what it might mean for the future of audit.Attacking professionals seen as conflicted might be seen as good sport and eminently reportable in the media but what that does in amongst the academic circles is raises a very valid concern.What happens if people stop wanting to enter into the auditing side of accounting world because of the negative vibe that is associated with the role of audit? What happens if there is a decline in interest in people wanting to continue their professional career in audit? How many truly expert auditors in different industries will Australia have if auditors keep getting bagged in public? These are valid questions given that there has been a steady decline in the population of registered company auditors, which are the folks that do audits of listed companies, over a very long period of time.Those numbers may decline even further as professionals retire and other people decide they no longer want the risk nor the reputational slurring that at times comes with playing in the audit space.Whacking auditors is fine when the reasons are legitimate and there is ample cause to do so. Ensuring auditors are properly dealt with for misconduct when they do fail to comply with standards or are recalcitrant when it comes to providing documents required by a court is necessary.Belting professionals as a class when there is no adequate reason will create a problem in the marketplace that we will all pay for dearly.Why is this relevant to financial institutions and other entities?The badmouthing of audit professionals may assist the decline in numbers of suitably qualified auditors over time and when the supply is low and demand is high you can expect fees to rise.