In a scrappy week of Senate estimates hearings, there was one criticism of the Albanese government that should have really stung Labor, delivered just after lunch on Tuesday.

Greens senator Barbara Pocock was furious at the government’s decision to reject serious recommendations from its jobs for mates review, written by former public service commissioner Lynelle Briggs.

Even the most cynical observers might have been surprised at its blunt assessment of appointments made by governments of all stripes.

Pocock was scathing about Labor’s decision not to legislate tougher processes to stop cronyism, nepotism and captain’s picks. Like promises on gambling advertising and transparency, for Briggs, Labor’s rhetoric had not lived up to reality.

That the government had withheld the report for two years only made the situation worse.

“I think what your government is becoming is a government of gestures, a government of codes,” Pocock told the finance minister, Katy Gallagher.

Briggs, a former royal commissioner and non-executive director, said back in August 2023 that the major parties have abused appointments so well that the public expects to be lumped with “overpaid political hacks” without requisite skills.

Even though Briggs estimated as few as 7% of appointments can be automatically described as “political”, the report, titled No Favourites, found as many as 50% of picks in some portfolios were “direct appointments” made by ministers........

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