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

Well, you can have one, because we have got some left. I have made sure that they have gone to Africa with missionaries. There are some in Uganda in a Christian mission helping out with education over there. They have gone to services for people with disabilities so that they could be cut up in craft class. I have even tried giving them away to journalists as Christmas presents. And of course I gave one to the member for Menzies as a consolation prize when he did not become the fourth Leader of the Opposition in two years. But I have to say this task has been beyond me: there are still 34,650 mouse pads in storage despite my very best labours to get rid of them. They are still there.

This would all be very funny if we could quickly get rid of the remaining 34,000. I have actually asked my department for advice. What can we do with them now? The trouble is we cannot shred them and put them into landfill because they are not biodegradable. It is like the Liberal Party’s commitment to Work Choices—it is going to take 150,000 years to biodegrade. Tony’s toxic mouse pads; Tony’s toxic Work Choices. But it is the Australian taxpayer that is having to put up with all of this because storing these mouse pads has cost the taxpayers $17,898.

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