Jon Sullivan (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister update the House on the disposal of Work Choices paraphernalia? What does the future hold for the 97,898 mousepads created for the Work Choices promotion?

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

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. A question to you: is the sustained use of a piece of material like this appropriate within the standing orders?

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

The incidental use of objects—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

It is quite easy for me to rule the way you wish to predict by doing that, but I was about to say that the incidental use of objects is in order and it probably is being overdone.

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

I am at least assured that, if I happen to accidentally break this one, there are plenty more where it came from.

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

The Deputy Prime Minister will get back to the question.

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

Then of course there is the suggestion that they be used as the bottom for green shopping bags, something the minister for the environment would approve of, giving you a nice firm surface at the bottom of your green shopping bag. We have had the suggestion that they could be used for notice boards, shin pads for soccer, innersole pads for shoes, doormats or, my personal favourite, floor liners for portaloos—a good use of Work Choices surplus mousepads.

I am reassured, having sought advice, that, under the provisions of the Financial Management Act, an official or a minister can make a gift of this property on the basis that it was acquired as a gift. Well, it was not really a gift, was it, when Australian taxpayers paid for it. But we are in a circumstance where we can provide mousepads to those who ask for them. On that basis we will be providing 5,000 mousepads to the Mental Health Activity and Learning Centre, who are planning to cut them up because of the colours and use them in a large mural. We will also be forwarding a large number of mousepads to two schools who have requested a bulk number, no doubt to use in art and craft classes.

We are continuing to collect expressions of interest from members of the public. We have a lot of mousepads to get rid of, so we are going to need a few more good suggestions—so please send them in. We are also asking for suggestions about what to do with the 77,000 pens and the 100,000 plastic folders we have left over from the excess of the extremists in workplace relations who sit opposite.