The Government Signal
Paper · Parliament

Notes from the Estimates Hearings

Five days, eleven portfolios, one notebook. A field report on what the estimates process actually reveals — and what it conceals.

Five days, eleven portfolios, one notebook. A field report on what the estimates process actually reveals — and what, by now, it has been designed to conceal.

Estimates is a ritual whose function has drifted from its form. Both forms are interesting; their drift is more so.