This is the standard of public discussion in Australia. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey travels the country pushing a persistent nugget of wilful misinformation.

No, the ACTU has not spent $100 million in an advertising campaign to counter WorkChoices. It’s simply untrue, no matter how many times Mr Hockey says otherwise. If the ACTU had, they’d be in the top handful of advertisers in the country, going toe to toe with Nestle and Harvey Holdings … but not holding a candle to the country’s number two spender across all media, the Commonwealth Government, whose $135-140 million for the past financial year was beaten only by Coles Myer.

Anyway, Joe Hockey, we’re here to help. We can understand your desire to lose the name WorkChoices. DamagedGoods really. Could we suggest an anagram engine? ChoicerWoks? CockierHows? Maybe ChickWooers or the potentially inflammatory C-ckWhoresI. (Though people would probably prefer you sent straight on to C-ckWhoresII.) EchoCowRisk has a certain something or even SickerCowHo to claim the youth vote? CowrieHocks would be enigmatic or maybe you could JustCallTheWholeThingOff.

From today, you can swap wit and insight with Christian Kerr, Richard Farmer, Charles Richardson and goodness knows who else in the Crikey politics Free For All. Read the posts and add a comment. It’s open to all subscribers and squatters, or you can simply register for a free trial and have your say. Visit the Free For All here.