“Are you really worth seven times the salary of the Australian prime minister?” came the opening question from Labor Senator Deb O’Neill to Deloitte chief executive Adam Powick at the parliamentary inquiry into consulting firms on Monday.

Powick offered some scarce resistance, mumbling a feeble protestation that it’s “a hard argument to prosecute”. But asked a second time, he crumbled, responding, with defeated brevity, “No.”