Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for your indulgence. I will tell you where that measurement comes from: it is actually one ten-millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the equator. That was a standard that was established at that particular time. That standard has changed because there are now more reliable ways of standardising the measurement. If you have ever wondered where we came up with this notion of the metre, it is very closely related to the yard—three feet—which goes back to the Vitruvian Man.

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