There was many moments throughout the PelAir inquiry where Beaker & McComic displayed open contempt for the RRAT committee Senators and their questioning. However IMO there was two particular (gotcha) moments that more than adequately highlighted the levels of complicity and obfuscation the two agency heads were prepared to go to in perpetuating the PelAir coverup i.e. PelAir Gate.
Moment one: As referred to in Kharon’s post #1849…
“….trying to sell the same fairy story to a Senator like Fawcett is, of it's self, stupid, suspicious, not to mention incredibly arrogant. You have to ask why a potentially career ending gamble, which Dolan freely took, was attempted. He was never going to get away with the version ploy; not ever. The bait was offered and he snapped it up, thinking the hook was avoided. Sarcs posted the - Annexe 13 - Hansard recording; have a careful look, it's all there in glorious Technicolor.
Yup, the box would be nice to have; but the truth would be better…”
Subsequently when Senator Fawcett realised he’d been duped by the lint flicking Beaker he fired off two written QONs which were answered by (tail between the legs) ATsBeaker like this:
SENATE RURAL AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS AND TRANSPORT
REFERENCES COMMITTEE
Inquiry into aviation accident investigations
Written Questions Taken on Notice – Australian Transport Safety Bureau from Public Hearing – Thursday, 28 February 2013
Written Questions on Notice- Senator Fawcett
1. Could the ATSB confirm which edition of the Annex 13 document was current at the time Mr Dolan made his decision regarding not recovering the FDR.
ATSB response: The version of Annex 13 current at the time was the 9th Edition as amended by Amendments 11, 12-A and 12-B.
2. Explain the discrepancy between the answer he provided today (explaining their decision to not recover the FDR which inferred that the "reasonable" clause in the current document was the basis) given the standard which was in force at the time of the accident, which, if it did not provide that modification would have mandated recovery of the FDR.
ATSB response: The ATSB considers that the general provisions of paragraph 5.4 of the Annex as it stood at the time provided the necessary discretion to the ATSB in its conduct of the investigation.
IMO this is clear evidence that Beaker never even considered the implications his (money pinching) decision to not recover the black box could ultimately have on the ATsB obligations to comply with ICAO Annex 13…
Moment two McComic (at 04:25):
Boy those McComic minions in the background had a busy couple of minutes finding the necessary reference for their boss, however it was to be a short lived triumph (with the Cheshire grin) McComic, as the good Senator Nash’s 
question still stood and was eventually answered like this:
Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON NOTICE
Inquiry into Aviation Accident Investigations (Pel-Air) 22 October 2012
Civil Aviation Safety Authority
CASA07: Receipt of weather information by Dominic James
Hansard: p.52
Senator NASH: There are two to take on notice. In terms of the information regarding the weather, the initial weather report you referred to earlier was 6,000 feet in terms of the cloud, but then a second one was issued very shortly after with different information. How do you know it was received? Given some of the issues around the radio frequency—and of course I understand that you know it was sent—how do you know it was received?
Mr McCormick: I can look to the ATSB report.
Senator NASH: Can I ask you to take on notice, given the evidence around, how do you and CASA know that information was received by the pilot?
Answer:
The transcripts of the contacts with air traffic services by the crew of the aircraft VH-NGA do not reveal any apparent communications difficulty. In interviews with CASA, Mr James did not express any views that there were any high frequency communications irregularities. The first CASA became aware of Mr James’s views on HF communications difficulties was when he raised it on the recent 4 Corners television program.
The transcript of the pilot’s conversation with Fiji air traffic control reveals that the pilot acknowledged the second report on weather information indicating it was received.
0802:32 from Nadi to VH-NGA. Roger this is the latest weather for Norfolk...SPECI... I say again special weather Norfolk at 0800 Zulu... auto I say again auto, alpha uniform tango oscar, wind 290 08 knots, 999 november delta victor, overcast one thousand one hundred, temperature 21, dew point 19, QNH Norfolk 1012...remarks... romeo foxtrot zero zero
decimal zero oblique zero zero zero decimal zero go ahead.
0803:21 from VH-NGA to Nadi. Thank you Nadi... much appreciated NGA .
A different response could be expected if the pilot experienced difficulty hearing the radio transmission. The ATSB accident report on page 17 also advised that no difficulties were identified by the flight crew with their radio communications during the flight.
Comment: Notice that (much like the CAIR 09/3 record of the transcript) the above AQON’s transcript copy fails to include the erroneous (infamous) 0801 Nadi transmission of the O630 METAR for Norfolk (reference page 1 - Attachment 9 Aherne submission):
So no harm done and back on script for what FF & ATsBeaker wanted us all (including the man at the back of the room) to believe, yeah right…
IMO these two recorded moments in the PelAir inquiry more than adequately highlight why both Fort Fumble & ATsBeaker should have been excluded from contributing advice & recommendations for the miniscule (Albo & then Truss) DRAFT response to the PelAir report. The conflict of interest is obvious, even to the man at the back of the room, and Truss has by association, with these two numbnuts, potentially put his foot on a claymore that will blow if he doesn’t heed the advice of the IOS bomb disposal experts…