Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister detail the waste associated with the production of the WorkChoices booklet?

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

I thank the member for Werriwa for his question. I can advise the House that today the Prime Minister and I went to the national mailing and marketing centre in Canberra to send the final of these WorkChoices booklets off to be pulped—436,000 of them off to be pulped. Let us remind ourselves that last October when the Howard-Costello government decided to introduce Work Choices it knew Work Choices would hurt working families. As verified by John Howard’s autobiography, the cabinet sat around the table and talked about how many working families would lose out under Work Choices and they decided to go ahead with it anyway. A deliberate decision was taken to rip off working families. But in order to disguise that deliberate decision, the Howard government—

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. It goes to relevance. This question was about the WorkChoices booklet.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister can proceed.

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

A deliberate decision was taken to rip off working families and consequently a deliberate decision was taken for a propaganda campaign to try and disguise that fact. Some $120 million of taxpayers’ money was ultimately allocated towards that advertising campaign. Let us remember the highlights of this propaganda war: the 36-page booklet that contained the example of Billy, who got a minimum wage job and lost everything else. He lost public holidays, rest breaks, bonuses, annual leave loading, allowances, penalty rates, shift loadings and overtime—Billy with a minimum wage job in this propaganda.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister can put the booklet down.

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

But the propaganda did not end there. It was joined by a to-do list, a Work Choices to-do list. It was joined by a Work Choices mouse pad. The propaganda continued, apparently under the guise of informing Australians about their rights.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hockey interjecting

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

I think the Manager of Opposition Business is saying he still uses one of those mouse pads. But this propaganda war is now at an end. Six million of these booklets were produced, but Australians know a con when they see one. They did not want these booklets, just like they did not want the Howard-Costello government’s Work Choices laws. So 3.5 million of them ended up being shredded by the Howard government itself. These booklets sat in storage containers around the country costing taxpayers, to add insult to injury. They paid the $2 million for the booklets, then they paid $110,000—

Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The Deputy Prime Minister is ignoring your demand to put down that article.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Barker. The Deputy Prime Minister’s use of the props is excessive.

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

I am just reminding everybody of the Work Choices propaganda that Australian taxpayers paid for—$2 million on those booklets and then $110,000 to store them from October 2005 until 28 September 2007, more than 3½ million of them. And, on the topic of pulping fiction: whoever is the Harvey Keitel-Winston Wolfe character of the Howard-Costello government, whoever used to do the clean-up jobs, then ordered that these booklets be pulped—and they were pulped, immediately before the election campaign started. But we found 436,000 of them that the clean-up job missed, and we are ensuring that today they are pulped, just like the Rudd Labor government will pulp Work Choices.

On the question of pulp fiction, the Manager of Opposition Business is today trying to get away with the biggest fiction of them all: he is trying to pretend that members of the Howard government, Howard government ministers, did not know that Work Choices could hurt Australian working families. He is trying to pretend that the only Australians who did not know Work Choices could hurt working families were the Australians sitting around the Howard government ministerial table. Apparently they are the only ones who missed out on the news. The member for Higgins, hunched over Ian McLachlan’s wallet note—apparently he missed out on the news.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Deputy Prime Minister is straying from the question a little.

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

I am searching for an explanation, Mr Speaker, which could possibly make the version from the Manager of Opposition Business true. So here we have the Howard government ministers around the ministerial table—the only Australians who do not know, according to him, that Work Choices is hurting working families, so self-absorbed are they by their divisions: the member for Higgins hunched over his wallet note, the current shadow minister for family and community services hunched over the John Howard defence minutes because that was his role, the current shadow Treasurer hunched over a number sheet—apparently the only ones who were so self-absorbed they did not know that Work Choices was hurting working families. Well, this truly is fiction. Each and every one of them knew that it was hurting working families. Before the election they defended Work Choices with propaganda, and now they defend it with their Senate numbers. It is time to do what the Australian people want and vote for Labor’s—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Prime Minister will resume her seat. I take it that the Deputy Prime Minister has finished.