In recent times, we’ve seen plenty of big news stories emerge from senate inquiries and estimates hearings.
Senate inquries have examined hot-button issues as diverse as disruption in school classrooms, the November 8 Optus service outage, and questionable tax minimisation advice from the “big four” accounting firms.
Estimates hearings have, if anything, been even more sensational. Earlier in the year, former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe copped a grilling over inflation and rising rents. Senior public servant Jim Betts likewise endured a couple of very tense exchanges. One was about his t-shirt, and the other concerned a degrading “hotties list” that allegedly circulated among some male graduates in his department.
