Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is interesting that this question should come in a context where members opposite are trying to feign some interest in the effectiveness of government spending, because when they were in government apparently it was entirely appropriate, as far as they were concerned, to waste $121 million on Work Choices propaganda—money ripped out of the purses and wallets of hardworking Australian taxpayers in a desperate attempt to try and pay for their re-election campaign. It is true that we do have left 97,898 mousepads. We do have that many left.

We have put out a call to the Australian people about the best way of using these surplus Work Choices mousepads like the one I am holding up here. We have received some very interesting suggestions. One member of the public has suggested that they would be good under-floor insulation for public buildings. You lay them face up, pour concrete over the top of them and then you walk on them. That is one suggestion we have had, and I think it is a pretty good one. Another is that they could be cut up to make feet for chairs and stoppers for cabinets because of the spongy nature of the material. A third suggestion is that you could use the back, decorate it and then use it as a placemat—also a very good suggestion. We have had mothers suggesting that they could take a cookie cutter, cut out a shape and spray paint it to make a good decoration for a child’s bedroom. We have had schools and craft groups approach us for using mouse mats for a comparable purpose.

For all those Australians who detested Work Choices, who wanted to see it gone, who believed it was an offence to Australian values and that the Liberal Party’s extremism should not be allowed to stand, there is the suggestion that we stamp ‘cancelled’ over them, and they could be a good piece of memorabilia. The suggestions from the public do not end there. We have had suggestions for mudflaps, stubby holders or putting mousepads together so that you could have enough to make a yoga mat.

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