After a particularly feisty round of budget estimates, we thought it was time to update our handbook on Senate estimates etiquette.
Loyal Public Eye readers might recall we've written before about the golden rules for secretaries.
But having seen some of the events of the last two weeks, we thought it might be best to broaden our advice out to all participants.
An irate Jane Hume delivered a scathing assessment of the current state of transparency in Senate estimates.
"Minister, this is taking the piss out of Senate estimates, it is very disappointing," the Liberal Senator said.
She, and her Coalition colleagues, were incensed that Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth had introduced new workplace relations legislation the morning after the relevant officials were dismissed from estimates.
To add insult to injury, the proposed legislation was dropped out to the media beforehand, with the embargo lifting at just about the same time the estimates hearing finished.
Labor Minister Jess Walsh, appearing on behalf of Ms Rishworth, said there would be the normal opportunity for scrutiny of the legislation in the lower house.
We'll let you decide if this was a new sleight of hand by Labor, but elsewhere in the hearings, the Attorney-General's Department was caught out.
As Public Eye revealed, the department charged with administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), delayed the broad release of an FOI into proposed sweeping changes to the FOI Act.
Why, you ask? The documents were uploaded to the disclosure log at the same time that departmental officials fronted up to estimates in February, leaving no time for senators to familiarise themselves with them.
Greens senator David Shoebridge accused the department of "gaming" the system, forcing secretary Katherine Jones to concede that the delay was not appropriate.
Labor committee chair Raff Ciccone learned the hard way that one should always assume the committee room microphones are live.
Senator Ciccone was announcing the foreign affairs, trade and defence committee would break for lunch when the microphone caught him muttering, "Thank f--- for that."
The embarrassed Senator made sure to issue reminders to his fellow estimates participants to be wary of their microphones for the remainder of the week.
The tension over the Rising Tide climate blockades at the Port of Newcastle quickly escalated in one committee.
Nationals senator Susan McDonald was asking Labor's Anthony Chisholm about a registered charity using its tax-deductible status to host a book club for the activist group, when Senator McDonald crossed an invisible parliamentary boundary.
She wanted to know if anyone in the government had "had a word" with Climate Change Assistant Minister Josh Wilson regarding his son, who was spotted protesting at a corporate annual general meeting.
Senator Chisholm fired back a stern rebuke, "I think you can do better than that, Senator McDonald ... targeting someone's son."
"I don't think you want to go talking about our colleagues and their children, I'd advise against that ... but it is up to you", Senator Chisholm said.
Sometimes estimates gets existential, as shown by one tense exchange between an exasperated Liberal senator and the education secretary, that went to the very purpose of the hearings.
Senator Maria Kovacic was unhappy that a response to a letter she sent the department was only provided when she formally requested it mid-session.
Tony Cook - presumably hardened after facing Sarah Henderson's wrath over a $1200 dinner in 2024 - pulled out the rulebook on Senator Kovacic, pointing out the information was provided out of "goodwill".
"There's no requirement for the department to provide the information [as] there's no such thing as a pre-estimates process", Mr Cook said.
"We have traditionally - unlike other committees and secretaries who've said they won't provide that information - I have traditionally cooperated and provided that information".
If you're going to sass your political opponent, a demanding Senator or a defiant public servant, make it clear and effective.
Industry Minister Tim Ayres' attempt at frosty sarcasm may have faltered when he referenced a hit show first aired in 1968, to a Senator born 20 years later.
When ACT independent senator David Pocock questioned why the rollout of Australia's new AI Safety Institute head hadn't prompted a basic government press release, Senator Ayres hit back.
"We are big on substantive action," he said.
"It's not like an episode of Columbo where you discover at the end that there's an AI Safety Institute."
Points must be given for finding a reference other than Utopia, the public service parody that became a favourite reference of politicians and bureaucrats a couple of years back.
Ok, we might be in breach of our own rules here, but reminding your political opponents of your youth might not always be advisable.
Liberal senator Claire Chandler has settled into her role as the opposition's finance and public service spokesperson, and was ready to clash with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.
"Secretary using the historical tables, when was the last time that spending as a share of GDP was this high outside of the pandemic?" Senator Chandler baited Finance boss Matt Yannopoulos.
"So it was 1986-87, is that right? I wasn't even born then," the 36-year-old Senator added.
A long pause ensued, during which Senator Chandler visibly reveled in that quip.
Senator Gallagher pointed out Labor had brought that figure down post-COVID.
"And that is despite, as I said, all of those pressures coming at us in aged care, in [the National Disability Insurance Scheme] and in defence, that we are having to fund.
"All of which, I presume, and certainly on the defence side, you actually say you're going to spend more [on]."
