House debates
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Questions without Notice
Workplace Relations
3:29 pm
Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. What work is being undertaken by Fair Work Australia, the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations to inform the public of Australia’s new Fair Work laws? How is this an improvement on past practices?
Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I thank the member for Isaacs for his question. Of course, in the killing off of Work Choices and in the move to the Fair Work system there has been a need to ensure that Australian employers and employees got all of the information they needed as the system came into full operation on 1 January this year. That is why we have been in the business of getting that information to them in a practical and responsible way. The Fair Work website has had more than 1.4 million visits, 54,000 copies of the new Fair Work Ombudsman best practice guides have been downloaded, there have been 570,000 calls to the Fair Work information line and $3.7 million has been allocated to fund almost 50,000 education visits by the Fair Work Ombudsman—personal discussions to help businesses make the transition. Under the Fair Work Education and Information program, over 1,700 workshops have been delivered around the nation and there are a further 600 to come in the months ahead. The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia has worked in partnership with Telstra—a very innovative partnership—to mail out Fair Work information to over 900,000 small businesses. There have been 60 seminars around the country conducted by the National Farmers Federation for farmers to make sure that they get the information they need. And of course unions are working on the education of employees to make sure working people get the information they need through the union education fund. This is real, on-the-ground education and training. It is a low-cost approach.
I am asked whether there have been alternative approaches. Well, there have been. There was the waste of $121 million of taxpayers’ money on Work Choices, with $212,000 of that money producing 200,000 of these mouse pads. The House has looked at these mouse pads before. Of course, when we came to office in February 2008 I was advised that there were 97,898 mouse pads still in storage out of the original 200,000. I think I am a pretty determined person and I work as hard as I can, and I have laboured hard to get rid of these mouse pads—I have laboured hard.
Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to 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.
Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. I would remind you of the rulings previously made, both by you and your predecessors, with regard to the use of props, and I would ask you to rule that props be not used further by the Deputy Prime Minister.
Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
The Deputy Prime Minister should not overly display the props.
Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
In conclusion can I say the poor old taxpayer has had enough. Let me renew the offer I made earlier this year to the Leader of the Opposition. I know that he will want these for his next election campaign. We are prepared to shift all 34,000 of them to the Liberal Party secretariat free of charge. Just give me the word and there they will be for you. No more taxpayers’ money will be spent on these mouse pads. If you want them, Tony, there they will be. Just let us know.
Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker—
Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Mr Speaker, notwithstanding the Olympian effort just then, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.