Originally Posted by
Sunfish
You are not the only one who picked up on the seating position.
What I've picked up on, twice now, is how poorly Pip Spence has been briefed before these sessions and how stone faced CASA senior management remained as she dug herself deeper and deeper into a hole each time in the face of what were perfectly legitimate questions from the honorable Senators. Why, one might almost begin to think they wanted her to fail.
"Normal" behaviour of senior executives preparing their boss for a grilling by Senators is to write up a stack of one page briefs on anything likely to be asked with the recommendation (every brief has to have a recommendation); "That you note this matter". The briefs for the most likely to be asked questions go into the bosses briefing pack (to which Pip Spence referred) and the rest get carried in by the minions just in case so they can be handed to the boss if needed.
The Senators and senior mandarins, by the way, would regard Pip Spences abysmal performance not only as her failure, but the failure of her entire management team to prepare her properly and that would be what is worrying them the most; not Spence but Aleck and the others.
I am also beginning to wonder if Spences problems might be caused by a male dominated misogynistic corporate culture but surely not! This is 2022.
I may have interpreted this incorrectly, under a line of questioning that Ms Spence could not answer, she did say someone might be able to rush in and provide the answer (my words,) as in someone in her immeadiate vicinity. But alas, silence.