Dreading work this morning? At least you aren’t facing Labor’s Kim Carr at Senate Estimates asking about the release of the Commonwealth’s science, research and innovation budget tables (CMM October 18). Why were they so late, was it because investment is down in real terms the senator asked. They weren’t and it isn’t, an officer replied, which convinced the senator as much as not. It went back and forth until Minister Canavan came to the official’s aid.