Acting Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster faced a barrage of questions regarding Mike Pezzullo on Monday, many of which she successfully avoided.
Ms Foster appeared publicly in her acting secretary capacity for the first time on day one of Senate estimates, beginning by acknowledging it had been a tough time for the agency.
The Australian Public Service Commission has commenced an inquiry into Mr Pezzullo after allegations he tried to wield political influence through text messages with Liberal powerbroker Scott Briggs.
He was asked to stand down for the duration of the inquiry, which is ongoing.
Ms Foster told the committee the department had been contacted by the Public Service Commission to provide materials for the investigation, and had done so, but otherwise had no insight into the probe.
"I am confident that when the inquiry concludes there will be appropriate clarity on what actions were and were not taken," she said in response to questions from Labor senator Raff Ciccone.
She did reveal that Mr Pezullo remained on his total remuneration package of $914,659.
Infrastructure graduate program revelations
Allegations of poor culture in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts surfaced in the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport committee.
Responding to a question from Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie about a "hotties list", secretary Jim Betts reveaed there had been claims that male graduate staff had written a "degrading" list ranking female graduates by their attractiveness.
Mr Betts said the department had investigated, but had not managed to substantiate the existence of the list, though this did not mean it didn't exist. He also said he had spoken to women in the graduate cohort, and sought advice from a former sex discrimination commissioner.
Wong accuses Shoebridge of 'always' talking over her
In the Finance and Public Administration committee, Greens senator David Shoebridge and Labor senator Penny Wong butted heads over the classified climate security assessment by the Office of National Intelligence.
Senator Shoebridge is among voices calling on the report to be released, though the Prime Minister has said it won't be.
But Senator Wong, representing the Prime Minister, would not discuss the classification of the report.
Under questioning, she fired off to Senator Shoebridge that "I know you want to make a name for yourself," but it was not "responsible" to keep pressing when the response involves the National Security Committee.
After Senator Shoebridge interrupted her to say she was not answering a question, the Foreign Minister accused him of "always" talking over herself and Senator Katy Gallagher.
"Why do you always talk over myself and Katy Gallagher in question time? Why are you always talking over us?" she said.
The committee, which heard from officials in the Parliamentary Departments and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on Monday, was also told of taxing deadlines placed on Parliamentary Library staff.
New Parliamentary Librarian Steven Fox revealed he had heard two instances of staff falling asleep at their desk, before he took the job, and would focus on prioritising their workloads.
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