It's always fun to watch senators on the government side of the benches squirm under the questioning of their opponents at the carnival that is Senate estimates, where the usual power structure is reversed and normally obscure parliamentarians can have their day in the sun. After all, this is where Bronwyn Bishop first made her mark back in the Hawke-Keating years and look how well that turned out.

This week in the Senate, we were served up an absolute treat as NSW Senator Fiona Nash fidgeted and fussed through a couple of hours of intense questioning by the Greens' Richard Di Natale and Labor's Murray Watt over the delay to the roll-out of the National Cancer Screening Register (NCSR). Not that Senator Nash had much to say for herself, with Department of Health secretary Martin Bowles and Commonwealth chief medical officer Brendan Murphy taking most of the heat.