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Most senior leaders and communications professionals who’ve done plenty of media training walk into a parliamentary hearing feeling quietly confident. They know how to handle a tough question. They’ve practised their bridging technique. They understand the value of a tight key message.
Then the committee starts asking questions, and the rules they’ve relied on don’t apply anymore.
Parliamentary hearings, whether before a parliamentary committee or in Senate Estimates, share a surface resemblance to a media interview. There’s a microphone. There’s scrutiny. Your words matter. But the similarities end there, and the differences can catch even experienced communicators badly off guard.

Senate Estimates and parliamentary inquiries are not media interviews. They are formal accountability processes with procedural rules, political dynamics, and public records that last. The executives who perform badly in hearing rooms almost never lack intelligence or experience. They lack preparation. Here are the ten mistakes we see most often and what to do instead.