The hearings, which have been going for more than two hours and still not finished - have been an open airing on the obvious split in the board over mulesing which chairman, Brian van Rooyen, said was the number one divisive issue on the board.

The full board, minus one, were present at the hearings, with a clear split between the pro-clips camp and those not supportive of an earlier industry commitment to phase out mulesing by 2010.

Mr van Rooyen said the divisions over mulesing had not halted research efforts into alternatives to the practice, but the negative publicity emanating from the split over mulesing was not helping.

AWI director, John Keniry, said Australian Wool Innovation was the only company of the many he had been involved in where agri-politics had made it into the boardroom to the extent it had at AWI.

Mr van Rooyen tabled a significant amount of documents alleging examples of leaks to the media and public from the boardroom, moves to censure a director for speaking to the media without authorisation, and other areas where directors had acted outside corporate rules and contrary to the interests of woolgrowers.

Senator Nick Sherry, representing the Minister for Agriculture, said there were a number of issues raised which would never be resolved at the estimates hearing.

The hearings, which are looking at AWI spending on research and marketing, continue today.